Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Shares Bought by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) by 405.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,867 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Guess? were worth $66,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GES. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Guess? by 266.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,316 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new position in Guess? in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Guess? in the first quarter valued at $45,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in Guess? by 732.9% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,807 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 2,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Guess? by 27.5% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. 61.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on GES. UBS Group upped their price target on Guess? from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 25th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 price target (up from $33.00) on shares of Guess? in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Guess? from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. StockNews.com upgraded Guess? from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group upped their price target on Guess? from $23.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.00.

Insider Transactions at Guess?

In related news, CEO Carlos Alberini sold 211,797 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.32, for a total value of $6,421,685.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,499,668.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 49.10% of the company’s stock.

Guess? Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GES opened at $25.69 on Monday. Guess?, Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.21 and a 1-year high of $33.50. The business has a 50-day moving average of $26.98 and a 200-day moving average of $24.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.86 and a beta of 1.98.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.46. Guess? had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 7.14%. The company had revenue of $891.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $855.54 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Guess?, Inc. will post 2.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Guess?’s payout ratio is 41.38%.

Guess? declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, April 1st that allows the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 14.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Guess? Company Profile

Guess?, Inc designs, markets, distributes, and licenses lifestyle collections of apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. It operates through five segments: Americas Retail, Americas Wholesale, Europe, Asia, and Licensing. The company's clothing collection includes jeans, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts, blouses, shirts, jackets, activewear, knitwear, and intimate apparel.