Contrasting Gildan Activewear (GIL) and Its Competitors

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) is one of 117 public companies in the “Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Gildan Activewear to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Gildan Activewear and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gildan Activewear	1	5	9	0	2.53
Gildan Activewear Competitors	1658	7669	10098	367	2.46

Gildan Activewear currently has a consensus price target of $57.42, indicating a potential upside of 66.04%. As a group, “Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods” companies have a potential upside of 8.68%. Given Gildan Activewear’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Gildan Activewear is more favorable than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Gildan Activewear and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gildan Activewear	$3.62 billion	$398.88 million	30.88
Gildan Activewear Competitors	$5.69 billion	$471.75 million	22.21

Gildan Activewear’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Gildan Activewear. Gildan Activewear is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Gildan Activewear pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Gildan Activewear pays out 89.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.5% and pay out 22.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Gildan Activewear has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Gildan Activewear lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Gildan Activewear has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gildan Activewear’s competitors have a beta of 0.93, meaning that their average share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Gildan Activewear and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gildan Activewear	3.77%	21.76%	7.41%
Gildan Activewear Competitors	-3.13%	14.14%	2.99%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Gildan Activewear shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.1% of shares of all “Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Gildan Activewear shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.1% of shares of all “Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Gildan Activewear beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Gildan Activewear

Gildan Activewear Inc. is a Canadian apparel manufacturer headquartered in Montreal. Founded in 1984, the company produces and sells basic apparel, including T-shirts, fleece, underwear, socks and hosiery. Its brands include Gildan, American Apparel and Comfort Colors. The company serves wholesale distributors, screen printers, retailers and other customers, supplying products for both imprinting and everyday wear. Its vertically integrated operations span the manufacturing process, from yarn production and fabric-making to garment assembly and distribution.