Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $215.55 and last traded at $214.55, with a volume of 95463 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $212.98.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.67.

Garmin Stock Down 1.4 %

The company has a market cap of $40.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $179.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $172.31.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. The trade was a 19.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were 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 owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,479 shares of company stock worth $2,419,502. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the first quarter valued at about $253,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 5.9% during the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 36.9% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 27,307 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,065,000 after purchasing an additional 7,367 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 122.3% in the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 19,134 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,848,000 after acquiring an additional 10,526 shares during the period. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.3% in the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.