Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Decreases Stock Position in Gildan Activewear, Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA decreased its position in Gildan Activewear, Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) by 8.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 740,205 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 71,864 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 0.49% of Gildan Activewear worth $32,732,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,072,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear during the first quarter valued at $474,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 55.6% during the fourth quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 26,450 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $1,244,000 after acquiring an additional 9,450 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co. grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 250.0% during the fourth quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 27,721 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $1,304,000 after acquiring an additional 19,800 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 262.4% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 45,451 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $2,138,000 after purchasing an additional 32,911 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GIL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. CIBC lowered their price target on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. TD Securities increased their target price on Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Scotiabank raised Gildan Activewear to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Gildan Activewear in a report on Monday, April 28th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $51.00 price target for the company. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gildan Activewear currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $57.91.

Gildan Activewear Trading Up 5.3%

NYSE GIL opened at $53.22 on Friday. Gildan Activewear, Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.16 and a 1 year high of $55.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 3.91 and a quick ratio of 1.59. The company has a fifty day moving average of $48.86 and a 200 day moving average of $47.91. The company has a market capitalization of $7.98 billion, a PE ratio of 20.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.19.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The textile maker reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $711.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $715.29 million. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 12.38% and a return on equity of 30.61%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear, Inc. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.226 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.75%.

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.