Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Short Interest Down 9.0% in December

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,710,000 shares, a drop of 9.0% from the November 30th total of 1,880,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 577,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gildan Activewear

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIL. Simcoe Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 10.5% in the third quarter. Simcoe Capital Management LLC now owns 2,387,865 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $112,492,000 after acquiring an additional 226,695 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $544,000. Tacita Capital Inc boosted its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 1,025.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 13,056 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $615,000 after purchasing an additional 11,896 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear during the second quarter worth $1,425,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Gildan Activewear by 7,709.2% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 125,181 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $5,899,000 after buying an additional 123,578 shares during the last quarter. 82.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Shares of GIL stock traded up $0.77 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $47.05. The company had a trading volume of 543,813 shares, compared to its average volume of 700,844. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.40. Gildan Activewear has a one year low of $30.68 and a one year high of $50.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 2.31. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $48.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $44.73.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The textile maker reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.85. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 26.88% and a net margin of 13.06%. The firm had revenue of $891.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $882.85 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a dividend of $0.152 per share. This represents a $0.61 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is 32.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GIL. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $48.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.05.

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.