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Garmin forecasts weak year after fourth-quarter profit miss

US-GARMIN-RESULTS:Garmin forecasts weak year after fourth-quarter profit miss

(Reuters) - Garmin Ltd reported a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit as revenue in its personal navigation devices business fell 25 percent, and the company forecast full-year results below analysts' expectations.

Garmin has been betting on outdoor and fitness products to drive growth and reduce dependence on navigation devices as smartphones loaded with free mapping apps upend its market.

It is also trying to fight sluggish demand for its GPS-enabled handheld navigation devices by including high-margin specialized mapping services with them.

The company expects a full-year profit of $2.30 to $2.40 per share, excluding items, and revenue of $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting adjusted income of $2.82 per share and revenue of $2.76 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company's Dutch rival, TomTom NV, said last week that earnings would halve this year because of weak car sales and competition from providers of free maps.

Sales at Garmin's struggling automotive/mobile business, which makes navigation devices for cars and accounted for nearly half of the company's total revenue in the fourth quarter, slipped to $437 million.

The company's outdoor business, which makes things like dog-tracking and golf gadgets, fell 2 percent to $119 million in the fourth quarter, while revenue from its fitness business, which makes gadgets such as GPS-enabled watches to count calories and monitor heart beats, rose 10 percent to $104 million.

Total revenue fell 16 percent to $910 million.

Net profit fell to $129.3 million, or 66 cents per share in the fourth quarter, from $165.6 million, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 68 cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 73 cents per share, on revenue of $833.4 million.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

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