Tag Archives: fit

Fitbit Q4 Earnings Report Could Be Catalyst For Beleaguered Stock

Fitbit ‘s ( FIT ) fourth-quarter earnings report on Monday could be an opportunity for the maker of wearable fitness devices to get investors interested in its story again. Piper Jaffray analyst Erinn Murphy said Fitbit’s Q4 report is “likely a catalyst” for its shares. She reiterated her overweight rating on the stock but slashed her price target to 24 from 60 on reset expectations for the San Francisco-based company. Fitbit went public on June 18 at 20 and climbed as high as 51.90 on Aug. 5. The stock cratered after a disappointing showing at the CES consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas in early January. On Friday, Fitbit stock fell 2.5% to 15.60 after rival Garmin ( GRMN ) announced two new fitness wearables that will ship in the second quarter. Garmin introduced the Vivofit 3 daily activity tracker and Vivoactive HR smartwatch. The Vivofit 3 starts at $99.99 and features one-year battery life and automatic activity detection. The Vivoactive HR is a GPS smartwatch with wrist-based heart-rate tracking and costs $249.99. “While Fitbit has clearly been a very challenged stock year-to-date, we remain overweight on the stock into the Q4 print,” Murphy said in a report. “As we are now past the share lockup period, investors should begin looking at fundamentals again.” Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Fitbit to earn 25 cents a share excluding items on sales of $648 million in the December quarter. Sales in the year-earlier period were $370 million. For the March quarter, Wall Street is modeling for Fitbit to earn 23 cents a share on sales of $485 million. In Q1 2015, Fitbit reported sales of $337 million. “We view fiscal 2016 favorably, given already announced new product launches (with more to come), the opportunity on the corporate wellness side, and an attractive multiple entry point into shares,” Murphy said. Fitbit’s newest products, the Blaze smart fitness watch and Alta fitness wristband, are set to go on sale in March. Fitbit faces a host of competitors in addition to Garmin. They include Apple ( AAPL ), Fossil ( FOSL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Under Armour ( UA ). On Wednesday, Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brad Erickson reiterated his overweight rating on Fitbit but cut his price target to 31 from 47. “Demand appears steady after the holiday, but days of inventory are higher,” Erickson said. “Our upside bias to numbers remains and valuation is compelling, but we are tempering our expectations for multiple expansion, given inevitably slowing growth in 2016, even as corporate wellness remains a free call option in the name.” RELATED: Fitbit 2016 Outlook An Exercise In Worry For Investors? Fitbit Gets Fashionable With Alta Fitness Wristband .

Garmin Races Up 17% On Strong Q4, Driven By Fitness, Outdoor

Outdoor, fitness and navigation technology company Garmin ( GRMN ) surprised Wall Street on Wednesday with better-than-expected fourth quarter results, sending its shares almost 17% higher. The Olathe, Kans.-based firm earned 74 cents a share on sales of $781 million for the quarter ended Dec. 26. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Garmin to earn 48 cents a share on sales of $760 million. On a year-over-year basis, EPS and sales were down 4% and 3%, respectively, as Garmin’s once-core automotive GPS navigation device business continues its secular decline. The company’s auto segment sales fell 21% year over year to $268 million in Q4. Garmin’s top-performing segment was fitness devices, with sales rising 14% to nearly $229 million. Garmin’s outdoor segment sales rose 6% to almost $124 million. Aviation segment sales jumped 12% to $104 million. Marine segment sales climbed 8% to $56 million. Garmin stock rose 16.6% to 41.06 on the stock market today after the company announced Q4 earnings. On a conference call with analysts, Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble said the company’s investments to diversify from personal navigation devices are paying off. Excluding the auto segment, sales grew 11% year over year. The aviation, fitness, marine and outdoor segments together contributed 66% of revenue in Q4. In the fitness device market, Garmin dominates the high-end running and sports watches segment. But it has been competing more with Fitbit ( FIT ) and others in the activity tracker business. William Blair analyst Jonathan Ho reiterated his outperform rating on Garmin stock. Garmin’s 2016 guidance was a “source of relief” for investors, Ho said. Its full-year sales target of $2.82 billion was slightly above Wall Street’s consensus. But its EPS goal of $2.25 was 5 cents below consensus. Garmin also announced plans to maintain its current quarterly dividend of 51 cents a share over the next four quarters. “These results were better than investors feared, given the global macroeconomic challenges, competition, pricing pressure and currency headwinds that the company faced,” Ho said. “We were impressed by a solidly executed quarter that led revenue and EPS to be meaningfully above expectations and a solid guide that takes into account a still-challenging environment.”  

Fitbit 2016 Outlook An Exercise In Worry For Investors?

Wearable fitness device maker Fitbit ( FIT ) likely had strong holiday season sales, but investors are worried about its prospects for 2016, Sterne Agee CRT analyst Rob Cihra said in a research report late Wednesday. Fitbit stock sank to an all-time low Thursday amid a broader market sell-off, down more than 8%, near 13.50, in morning trading on the stock market today . Earlier in the day, it traded as low as 12.90. The San Francisco-based company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 22. Cihra reiterated his neutral rating on Fitbit stock but slashed his price target to 18 from 35. The current market is “in less mood to pay a multiple” for Fitbit, he said. Fitbit’s newest products, the Blaze smart fitness watch and Alta fitness wristband, are unlikely to move the needle much, Cihra said. Fitbit’s “next wave” of innovation might require more new sensor technology rather than new wearable designs, he said. The last product cycle for Fitbit was driven by wrist-based heart-rate monitoring, he said. “The reality, however, is coming up with a step-function improvement like wrist-based HR is not something we should probably expect every year,” Cihra said. “A hoped-for function like blood pressure monitoring, for example, looks on the roadmap/horizon but likely still requires a lot more work to shrink necessary mechanics.” Fitbit’s latest products, the Blaze and Alta, are more about growing an accessories business, namely swappable wristbands, he said. Both new products are due out in March. One person bullish on Fitbit is Salesforce.com ( CRM ) CEO Marc Benioff. On Wednesday, regulatory filings revealed that Benioff owns 5.3% of the company, or 5.3 million of the 99 million outstanding shares. RELATED: Fitbit Gets Fashionable With Alta Fitness Wristband .