Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Short Interest Update

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,020,000 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the November 30th total of 2,870,000 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 895,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Garmin Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $204.55 on Friday. Garmin has a 1-year low of $119.15 and a 1-year high of $222.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $207.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $183.34. The company has a market capitalization of $39.28 billion, a PE ratio of 25.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business’s revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Barclays raised their target price on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley downgraded Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after purchasing an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in Garmin by 0.6% during the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $326,909,000 after purchasing an additional 11,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Garmin by 0.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $282,761,000 after purchasing an additional 13,968 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

About Garmin

Garmin Ltd. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes a range of wireless devices worldwide. Its Fitness segment offers running and multi-sport watches; cycling products; smartwatch devices; scales and monitors; and fitness accessories. This segment also provides Garmin Connect and Garmin Connect Mobile, which are web and mobile platforms where users can track and analyze their fitness, activities and workouts, and wellness data; and Connect IQ, an application development platform.