Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Acquires 488,602 Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) by 192.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 742,149 shares of the textile maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 488,602 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned 0.49% of Gildan Activewear worth $34,918,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GIL. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Gildan Activewear by 500.0% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 894 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares in the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,278 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $719,000 after buying an additional 1,675 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Gildan Activewear in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Gildan Activewear by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 11,353 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 2,417 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 272,520 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $12,822,000 after acquiring an additional 1,171 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Securities upped their target price on Gildan Activewear from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $60.00.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Gildan Activewear stock opened at $52.92 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $50.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.26. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.23 and a 52 week high of $55.39.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The textile maker reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.30). Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 28.80% and a net margin of 12.26%. The company had revenue of $822.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $805.75 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.226 per share. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.00%.

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.