Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Declares $0.30 Quarterly Dividend

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share on Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 16th.

Guess? has increased its dividend payment by an average of 28.7% annually over the last three years. Guess? has a payout ratio of 122.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Guess? to earn $2.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.4%.

Guess? Stock Up 8.6 %

Guess? stock opened at $10.91 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $11.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.82. Guess? has a 1-year low of $9.24 and a 1-year high of $30.98. The company has a market cap of $561.14 million, a PE ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.07. Guess? had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 23.29%. The business had revenue of $932.25 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $916.75 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.01 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Guess? will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GES. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $13.00 price target on shares of Guess? in a report on Friday. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Guess? from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 11th.

Guess? announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, March 25th that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 38.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

About Guess?

Guess?, Inc designs, markets, distributes, and licenses lifestyle collections of apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. It operates through five segments: Americas Retail, Americas Wholesale, Europe, Asia, and Licensing. The company’s clothing collection includes jeans, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts, blouses, shirts, jackets, activewear, knitwear, and intimate apparel.