Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Lowers Holdings in Carter’s, Inc. $CRI

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its stake in shares of Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) by 14.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,709 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 1,842 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Carter’s were worth $323,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Carter’s by 14,270.6% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,631,493 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $66,728,000 after buying an additional 1,620,140 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Carter’s by 6.5% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,327,040 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $54,276,000 after purchasing an additional 81,097 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Carter’s by 10.9% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,183,289 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $48,397,000 after purchasing an additional 116,113 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in shares of Carter’s by 6.8% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 631,557 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $25,831,000 after purchasing an additional 40,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Carter’s by 12.2% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 200,215 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $8,189,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRI. UBS Group decreased their price target on Carter’s from $32.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on Carter’s from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Carter’s in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Zacks Research cut Carter’s from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and an average price target of $30.50.

Carter’s Stock Performance

NYSE:CRI opened at $31.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.27. Carter’s, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.38 and a 52-week high of $68.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 2.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of 8.29 and a beta of 1.07.

Carter’s (NYSE:CRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The textile maker reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.26). Carter’s had a net margin of 4.79% and a return on equity of 20.68%. The company had revenue of $585.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $563.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Carter’s, Inc. will post 5.15 EPS for the current year.

Carter’s Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 26th. Carter’s’s payout ratio is currently 26.53%.

Carter’s Profile

Carter’s, Inc engages in the business of brand marketing of young children’s apparel. It operates through the following segments: the United States (US) Retail, US Wholesale, and International. The US Retail segment includes selling products through retail stores and ecommerce websites. The US Wholesale segment focuses on wholesale partners.