Analysts Set Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Price Target at $50.85

Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $50.85.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price 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. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Gildan Activewear from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Gildan Activewear from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price target on Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 591,980 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 28.0% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,863,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $70,696,000 after purchasing an additional 407,113 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 31.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,573,695 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $59,674,000 after purchasing an additional 377,135 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,568,733 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $97,290,000 after purchasing an additional 324,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Gildan Activewear Stock Down 0.9 %

Gildan Activewear stock opened at $49.55 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.58, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $47.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.72. Gildan Activewear has a twelve month low of $30.68 and a twelve month high of $50.58.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The textile maker reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.85. The firm had revenue of $891.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $882.85 million. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 26.88% and a net margin of 13.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.61 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.