Boating Industry Intelligence You Can Profit From
CAYMAN ISLANDS — Navigation device maker Garmin Ltd. posted revenue of $781 million in the third quarter, down 10 percent from $870 million in third quarter 2008, the company said in a release this week. The company’s third quarter ended Sept. 26.
Although the company’s overall revenue was down, its marine segment posted third quarter revenue growth of 3 percent to $45 million.
“While the general marine market remains down, we are outperforming our competitors on the strength of our marine product lineup and believe that we are gaining market share in the marine electronics industry,” Min Kao, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in the release. “While we do not expect to post significant growth in this segment until the macroeconomic conditions improve, we do expect that year-over-year revenues have stabilized in the near-term.”
Kao also said the company was excited about its new OEM relationship with Regal, which will put Garmin electronics as standard selections on the equipment list of over two dozen 2010 Regal models.
Garmin’s other segments performed as follows: Automotive/Mobile decreased 13 percent to $546 million; Outdoor/Fitness increased 11 percent to $132 million; and Aviation decreased 29 percent to $58 million.
The company said its operating margin improved to 30.3 percent compared to 24.6 percent in third quarter 2008 and 29.8 percent in second quarter of 2009. Also, Garmin generated $281 million of free cash flow in the quarter for a cash and marketable securities balance of just over $1.8 billion.
“We saw steady sequential improvement in our consumer segments during the third quarter and are very pleased to return to year-over-year earnings per share growth in the quarter,” Kao said. “While revenues fell year-over-year, the rate of decline moderated at 10 percent but our margin improvements more than offset that decline. We remain focused on efforts to improve productivity and manage expenses as the consumer spending environment continues to recover.”
To read Garmin’s complete report, click here.
- Can’t get enough boating news? Subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed, follow us on Twitter or look for “Boating Industry” on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- For more of the latest news, click here.