Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,550,000 shares, an increase of 11.4% from the June 30th total of 2,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 728,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRMN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Bank of America downgraded Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.83.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN stock traded down $1.38 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $176.56. 758,459 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 846,211. The company has a market cap of $33.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $164.93 and its 200 day moving average is $149.48. Garmin has a 12-month low of $99.61 and a 12-month high of $178.51.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.42. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.26% and a net margin of 24.96%. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin will post 5.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 42.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,551,530.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Garmin news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,551,530.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total value of $379,830.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,527,256.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $54,460,000. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the first quarter valued at approximately $38,727,000. SW Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,279,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $110,869,000 after purchasing an additional 190,739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 153.8% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 291,918 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $37,737,000 after purchasing an additional 176,908 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% 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.