Gildan Activewear (TSE:GIL) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Gildan Activewear (TSE:GIL) (NYSE:GIL) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on GIL. National Bankshares reduced their target price on Gildan Activewear from C$83.00 to C$72.00 in a report on Monday, April 21st. Desjardins boosted their target price on Gildan Activewear from C$82.00 to C$87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Gildan Activewear from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Gildan Activewear has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of C$65.75.

Gildan Activewear Stock Down 0.1 %

TSE GIL opened at C$58.82 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of C$6.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.77, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 101.26. Gildan Activewear has a 1-year low of C$44.23 and a 1-year high of C$79.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average is C$64.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$67.85.

Gildan Activewear (TSE:GIL) (NYSE:GIL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported C$0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.82 by C$0.01. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 23.10% and a net margin of 13.05%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear will post 4.5460385 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th were given a $0.226 dividend. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 12th. This is a boost from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is 29.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gildan Activewear

In other Gildan Activewear news, Senior Officer Michael Schroeder sold 4,299 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$78.02, for a total value of C$335,428.68. Also, Senior Officer Rhodri Harries sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$78.08, for a total value of C$7,808,000.00. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 110,144 shares of company stock worth $8,568,586. Insiders own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

Gildan Activewear Company Profile

Gildan is a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of basic apparel, including T-shirts, underwear, socks, and hosiery. Its primary market is the sale of blank T-shirts to wholesalers and printers (printwear). Gildan also sells branded clothing through retail and direct-to-consumer channels.