Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) Price Target Raised to $62.00 at Citigroup

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) had its price objective increased by Citigroup from $59.00 to $62.00 in a report issued on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the textile maker’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GIL. UBS Group upped their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities increased their price target on Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $60.00.

Gildan Activewear Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE GIL opened at $54.18 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.63. The company has a market capitalization of $8.24 billion, a PE ratio of 21.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. Gildan Activewear has a 12 month low of $32.23 and a 12 month high of $55.39.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The textile maker reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.30). The company 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.226 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GIL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear during the fourth quarter worth about $97,275,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 604.1% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,850,971 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $86,999,000 after buying an additional 1,588,071 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,769,634 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $83,394,000 after buying an additional 1,300,121 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 545.1% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,210,314 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $57,403,000 after buying an additional 1,022,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 776.4% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 817,204 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $38,414,000 after buying an additional 723,962 shares in the last quarter. 82.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Gildan Activewear

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.