Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $50.85.

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st.

Institutional Trading of Gildan Activewear

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GIL. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 204.8% in the 2nd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 881,100 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $33,416,000 after buying an additional 591,980 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 28.0% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,863,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $70,696,000 after buying an additional 407,113 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 31.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,573,695 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $59,674,000 after buying an additional 377,135 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,568,733 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $97,290,000 after buying an additional 324,304 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 10,252,785 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $388,786,000 after buying an additional 271,273 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Shares of GIL opened at $48.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.54 billion, a PE ratio of 19.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Gildan Activewear has a 1-year low of $30.68 and a 1-year high of $50.58. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $47.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.02.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The textile maker reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85. The firm had revenue of $891.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $882.85 million. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 26.88%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.152 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.61 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is 32.41%.

Gildan Activewear Company Profile

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.