OLATHE, Kan. (BRAIN) — Surging fourth-quarter fitness sales — led by activity tracking products — helped Garmin Ltd. offset losses in its automotive/mobile and outdoor divisions to close 2014 with a 6 percent year-over-year gain in quarterly revenue.
For the full year, Garmin reported a 9 percent gain in net sales to $2.87 billion.
"The fitness segment posted revenue growth of 70 percent in the quarter (to $201 million), confirming the strength of our product portfolio across a broad spectrum of price points and categories," Garmin said in a statement.
For the full year, fitness sales rose 60 percent to $568 million. Having introduced new fitness products at January's Consumer Electronics Show, such as the Vivoactive GPS-enabled smartwatch and Vivofit 2 activity band, and with new products yet to come in cycling and running, Garmin is projecting 25 percent revenue growth in fitness for 2015.
Garmin's outdoor segment saw revenue decline 8 percent in the fourth quarter as it faced challenges in the struggling golf market and the company remained only a niche player in the action camera space, which Garmin entered in Q3 2013 with its VIRB and VIRB Elite cameras.
For full-year 2014, outdoor revenue grew 4 percent, and Garmin projects flat outdoor revenue for 2015.
Automotive/mobile remained Garmin's largest sales segment in the fourth quarter, but revenue fell 11 percent to $339 million as sales of personal navigation devices continued to decline, contributing to a full-year decrease of 5 percent to $1.24 billion in net sales for the division. The aviation and marine segments reported sales growth of 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively, for 2014.
Garmin trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol GRMN. Its stock performance is tracked on BRAIN's Industry Stock Chart.
