Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.23

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.226 per share by the textile maker on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This is a positive change from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Gildan Activewear has increased its dividend by an average of 21.1% per year over the last three years. Gildan Activewear has a payout ratio of 20.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Gildan Activewear to earn $3.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.3%.

Gildan Activewear Stock Performance

Shares of Gildan Activewear stock traded up $1.19 during trading on Thursday, hitting $55.09. 747,166 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 531,408. Gildan Activewear has a 1 year low of $32.23 and a 1 year high of $55.12. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.30). Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 26.88%. The company had revenue of $822.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $805.75 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIL has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Gildan Activewear from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $60.00.

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.