Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Has $1.74 Million Stock Holdings in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 52,446 shares of the textile maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,713 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Gildan Activewear were worth $1,743,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,712,021 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $89,732,000 after acquiring an additional 29,193 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio increased its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 443.6% during the 4th quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 588,202 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $19,547,000 after purchasing an additional 480,000 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 138,429 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $4,576,000 after purchasing an additional 21,675 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,456,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 127,979 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $4,213,000 after buying an additional 22,761 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GIL. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $41.00 target price on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. UBS Group cut shares of Gildan Activewear from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, January 5th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.25.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Gildan Activewear stock opened at $35.64 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $35.55 and its 200 day moving average is $33.76. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a one year low of $26.98 and a one year high of $38.87. The firm has a market cap of $6.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The textile maker reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.03. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 16.70% and a return on equity of 23.19%. The firm had revenue of $782.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $753.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.205 per share. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.06%.

About Gildan Activewear

Gildan Activewear Inc manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sports shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Glidan Softstyle, Gildan Heavy Cotton, Gildan Ultra Cotton, Gildan DryBlend, Gildan HeavyBlend, Comfort Colors, and American Apparel brands.