195,952 Shares in Gildan Activewear, Inc. $GIL Purchased by Korea Investment CORP

Korea Investment CORP acquired a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear, Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 195,952 shares of the textile maker’s stock, valued at approximately $10,099,000. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.11% of Gildan Activewear at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Gildan Activewear by 0.9% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,593,203 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $589,508,000 after acquiring an additional 98,134 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 26.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,566,962 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $472,964,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561,729 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 20.9% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,911,589 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $384,629,000 after buying an additional 1,193,718 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 41.2% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 6,860,108 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $429,382,000 after buying an additional 2,001,279 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in Gildan Activewear by 15.7% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,706,078 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $373,122,000 after buying an additional 909,001 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotia upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce restated an “outperform” rating and set a $77.00 target price on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $83.00 price objective on Gildan Activewear and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.00.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Shares of GIL opened at $54.90 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $53.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Gildan Activewear, Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.55 and a twelve month high of $73.69. The company has a market cap of $10.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.57 and a beta of 1.11.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The textile maker reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.17. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 1.28% and a return on equity of 21.03%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. Gildan Activewear’s revenue was up 72.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Gildan Activewear, Inc. will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.249 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is presently 190.38%.

About Gildan Activewear

Gildan Activewear Inc (NYSE:GIL) is a vertically integrated manufacturer and wholesaler of branded basic apparel, including activewear, socks, hosiery and underwear. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, the company produces a wide range of products such as T-shirts, fleece garments, sport shirts, performance wear, and shapewear under its Gildan, Anvil, Comfort Colors, Gold Toe, Peds and Silks brands. Leveraging its in-house knitting, dyeing, cut-and-sew and finishing operations, Gildan supplies blank apparel to screen printers, promotional product distributors and major retailers around the world.

Since its founding in 1984 by Glenn J.