Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Receives $60.00 Average Target Price from Analysts

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $60.00.

A number of analysts have recently commented on GIL shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Gildan Activewear from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, CIBC increased their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th.

Institutional Trading of Gildan Activewear

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Gildan Activewear by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,325 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $251,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 55.6% during the 4th quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 26,450 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $1,244,000 after purchasing an additional 9,450 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 262.4% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 45,451 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $2,138,000 after purchasing an additional 32,911 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear in the fourth quarter valued at about $402,000. Finally, Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. purchased a new stake in Gildan Activewear during the fourth quarter worth about $173,000. 82.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

GIL stock opened at $44.76 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.90, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.39. Gildan Activewear has a fifty-two week low of $32.23 and a fifty-two week high of $55.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $50.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $48.63.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The textile maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.30). The company had revenue of $822.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $805.75 million. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 28.80% and a net margin of 12.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Gildan Activewear will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.226 per share. This is a boost from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is presently 36.00%.

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.