Arizona State Retirement System Trims Position in Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI)

Arizona State Retirement System trimmed its holdings in shares of Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,415 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 316 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Carter’s were worth $780,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Carter’s by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 632,671 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $47,381,000 after acquiring an additional 235,431 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Carter’s by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 408,095 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $28,220,000 after buying an additional 18,901 shares in the last quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Carter’s by 254.3% in the 3rd quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 77,033 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $5,327,000 after buying an additional 55,291 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Carter’s by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 93,170 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $6,977,000 after buying an additional 6,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Carter’s by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 168,723 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $11,667,000 after buying an additional 16,294 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Hipp sold 1,875 shares of Carter’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.74, for a total transaction of $153,262.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,216 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,055.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Carter’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Carter’s from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Carter’s from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Carter’s from $67.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Carter’s from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.75.

Carter’s Stock Performance

CRI opened at $71.32 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.61 billion, a PE ratio of 11.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $81.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.56. Carter’s, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.65 and a 12-month high of $88.03.

Carter’s (NYSE:CRI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The textile maker reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $858.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $867.81 million. Carter’s had a net margin of 7.89% and a return on equity of 28.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.29 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Carter’s, Inc. will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

Carter’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.49%. This is a positive change from Carter’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. Carter’s’s payout ratio is 51.04%.

About Carter’s

Carter's, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, sources, and markets branded childrenswear under the Carter's, OshKosh, Skip Hop, Child of Mine, Just One You, Simple Joys, Little Planet, and other brands in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S.