Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 41,120 Shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) by 23.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 131,757 shares of the company’s stock after selling 41,120 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.26% of Guess? worth $2,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GES. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in Guess? in the first quarter valued at about $208,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Guess? by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,879,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,090,000 after acquiring an additional 525,064 shares during the last quarter. Natixis bought a new stake in shares of Guess? in the 1st quarter valued at about $963,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Guess? in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $245,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Guess? during the 1st quarter worth approximately $352,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GES has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Guess? from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Telsey Advisory Group decreased their price target on shares of Guess? from $26.00 to $21.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.25.

Guess? Price Performance

NYSE GES opened at $17.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $877.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.71 and a beta of 1.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.05. Guess?, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.05 and a 52-week high of $33.50.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $732.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $729.96 million. Guess? had a return on equity of 24.18% and a net margin of 6.05%. The company’s revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Guess?, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.03%. Guess?’s payout ratio is presently 48.39%.

Guess? 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.