Len Lanetti
Cleared for Takeoff
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The Business Journal of Kansas City - 2:53 PM CDT Friday
Garmin CEO: 'Volatile' market won't stop strong growth
Charlie Anderson
Staff Writer
[font=Times New Roman,Times,Serif]Garmin Ltd. executives assured shareholders Friday that the navigation device-maker is poised for a highly profitable 2005, even though the company's stock at Thursday's close was down 37 percent, or $16.59, since the end of last year.
"We are in an industry ... that is poised for very significant growth," Garmin CEO Min Kao said at the annual shareholders meeting Friday in Overland Park. "Our market, it tends to be more volatile."
The Olathe-based company (Nasdaq: GRMN) forecasts earnings of $250 million to $260 million in 2005 on revenue of $890 million to $915 million.
That's up from earnings of $205.7 million in 2004 on revenue of $762.5 million.
Even with zero debt, more than $600 million in cash and equivalents, and burgeoning top and bottom lines, Garmin's stock has gone wildly up and down the past two years.
After losing more than $20 a share at one point in the summer of 2004, Garmin shares rebounded and closed higher than $60 in 2004, or up about 9 percent on the year.
Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman said at Friday's meeting that some investors were discounting the stock because they don't think the company can maintain its 50 percent-plus gross margins.
"The natural inclination is, 'Hey, Garmin can't sustain that,'" he said.
To dispute that, Rauckman pointed to a chart that showed Garmin's gross margins in 2004 were roughly the same as in 2000, when the company went public.
"We're still at the same place: 54 percent," Rauckman said.
Garmin ranks No. 16 on The Business Journal's list of area public companies.
[/font]REACH CHARLIE ANDERSON at 816-421-5900 or clanderson@bizjournals.com.
© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.
The Business Journal of Kansas City - 2:53 PM CDT Friday
Garmin CEO: 'Volatile' market won't stop strong growth
Charlie Anderson
Staff Writer
[font=Times New Roman,Times,Serif]Garmin Ltd. executives assured shareholders Friday that the navigation device-maker is poised for a highly profitable 2005, even though the company's stock at Thursday's close was down 37 percent, or $16.59, since the end of last year.
"We are in an industry ... that is poised for very significant growth," Garmin CEO Min Kao said at the annual shareholders meeting Friday in Overland Park. "Our market, it tends to be more volatile."
The Olathe-based company (Nasdaq: GRMN) forecasts earnings of $250 million to $260 million in 2005 on revenue of $890 million to $915 million.
That's up from earnings of $205.7 million in 2004 on revenue of $762.5 million.
Even with zero debt, more than $600 million in cash and equivalents, and burgeoning top and bottom lines, Garmin's stock has gone wildly up and down the past two years.
After losing more than $20 a share at one point in the summer of 2004, Garmin shares rebounded and closed higher than $60 in 2004, or up about 9 percent on the year.
Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman said at Friday's meeting that some investors were discounting the stock because they don't think the company can maintain its 50 percent-plus gross margins.
"The natural inclination is, 'Hey, Garmin can't sustain that,'" he said.
To dispute that, Rauckman pointed to a chart that showed Garmin's gross margins in 2004 were roughly the same as in 2000, when the company went public.
"We're still at the same place: 54 percent," Rauckman said.
Garmin ranks No. 16 on The Business Journal's list of area public companies.
[/font]REACH CHARLIE ANDERSON at 816-421-5900 or clanderson@bizjournals.com.
© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.
