Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $60.00.

GIL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, CIBC raised their target price on Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gildan Activewear

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GIL. Syon Capital LLC grew its stake in Gildan Activewear by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 6,524 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 61.8% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 872 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group grew its position in Gildan Activewear by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 16,268 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $765,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in Gildan Activewear by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,803 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its position in Gildan Activewear by 19.1% during the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,069 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $144,000 after purchasing an additional 492 shares in the last quarter. 82.83% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gildan Activewear Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:GIL opened at $41.13 on Friday. Gildan Activewear has a 12 month low of $32.23 and a 12 month high of $55.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $46.77 and its 200 day moving average is $48.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.16.

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

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th were given a dividend of $0.226 per share. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.00%.

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.