Guess? (NYSE:GES) Trading Up 9.6% Following Strong Earnings

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES)’s share price rose 9.6% during trading on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock traded as high as $11.16 and last traded at $11.00. Approximately 1,526,857 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 1% from the average daily volume of 1,515,545 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.04.

The company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.07. Guess? had a return on equity of 23.29% and a net margin of 3.19%. The company had revenue of $932.25 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $916.75 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.01 EPS. Guess?’s quarterly revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.00%. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.84%.

Guess? announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, March 25th that permits the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 38.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Guess? from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Guess? in a report on Friday.

Institutional Trading of Guess?

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Guess? by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,290,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,261,000 after acquiring an additional 228,601 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Guess? by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,274,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,040,000 after purchasing an additional 231,926 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Guess? by 13.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,383,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,447,000 after purchasing an additional 167,782 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Guess? by 160.2% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,159,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,299,000 after purchasing an additional 713,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Guess? by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,020,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,349,000 after purchasing an additional 80,944 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Guess? Trading Up 8.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $561.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 1.43. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $11.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.85.

About Guess?

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.