Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.23 Per Share

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of 0.226 per share by the textile maker on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 raised its dividend payment by an average of 21.1% per year over the last three years. Gildan Activewear has a dividend payout ratio of 20.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of GIL traded up $1.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $55.09. The company had a trading volume of 747,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 529,781. Gildan Activewear has a 1-year low of $32.23 and a 1-year high of $55.12. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.48. The stock has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $822.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $805.75 million. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 26.88%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on GIL. UBS Group upped their price target on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, CIBC boosted their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gildan Activewear currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price 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.