Garmin Blows Past Street's Targets

CAYMAN ISLANDS (TheStreet) -- Garmin (GRMN Quote) handily beat analysts' targets with its third-quarter report, even as revenue fell 10% from a year earlier.

Garmin reported net income of $215.1 million, or $1.07 a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 26, rising from the year-ago profit of $171.2 million, or 83 cents a share.

Excluding one-time items, Garmin said it would have earned $1.02 a share in the quarter.

Revenue dropped 10% from the year-ago quarter to $781 million, as decreases in automotive/mobile and aviation segment sales outweighed increases in outdoor/fitness and marine segments. Revenue did climb 17% from the second quarter.

Analysts expected Garmin would report a profit of 69 cents a share on sales of $703.9 million.

Gross margin improved to 52.4% in the third quarter from 44.3% a year ago, although that figure declined slightly from 52.6% in second quarter. Meanwhile, operating margin increased to 30.3% from 24.6% a year earlier and 29.8% sequentially.

"While revenues fell year‐over‐year, the rate of decline moderated at 10% but our margin improvements more than offset that decline," said Chairman and CEO Dr. Min Kao in a statement.

Shares of Garmin were rising by $1.95, or 6.2%, to $33.36 in Wednesday's premarket session.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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