Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,140,000 shares, a decrease of 10.3% from the August 31st total of 3,500,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 607,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIL has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Gildan Activewear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Gildan Activewear Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE GIL traded down $0.17 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $46.94. 637,103 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 742,741. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $43.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.06. Gildan Activewear has a 1 year low of $27.24 and a 1 year high of $47.75.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The textile maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $862.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $851.10 million. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 24.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Gildan Activewear will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.205 per share. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.70%.

Institutional Trading of Gildan Activewear

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 10,252,785 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $388,786,000 after acquiring an additional 271,273 shares in the last quarter. Browning West LP grew its stake in Gildan Activewear by 30.0% in the fourth quarter. Browning West LP now owns 8,640,448 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $285,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,994,900 shares in the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 1.5% in the second quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,907,144 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $110,197,000 after buying an additional 42,094 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,568,733 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $97,290,000 after buying an additional 324,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 28.0% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,863,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $70,696,000 after acquiring an additional 407,113 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

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.