Glowing Reviews for Garmin

Garmin (GRMN Quote - Cramer on GRMN - Stock Picks) surged 12% Wednesday after the global positioning outfit posted blowout fourth-quarter numbers.

The company made $180 million, or 82 cents a share, for the quarter ended Dec. 30, up from the year-ago $87 million, or 40 cents a share. Excluding foreign exchange, earnings were 87 cents a share, including a 7-cent unit volume credit.

Revenue rose 92% from a year ago to $611 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a 58-cent profit on sales of $524 million.

"We experienced triple digit growth in our automotive product line, clearly demonstrating that our strategy effectively positions us to take advantage of the growing demand for portable navigation devices both in the U.S. and in Europe," said CEO Min Kao. "We look forward to ongoing success from our broad portfolio of automotive products."

The company said earnings for the year should exceed $2.70 a share on revenue of $2.5 billion or so. Analysts were looking for the company to make $2.38 a share on revenue of $2.21 billion.

Shares of Garmin rose $6.17 to $58.88, while Navteq (NVT Quote - Cramer on NVT - Stock Picks) added 33 cents to $34.91.