Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Increases Dividend to $0.23 Per Share

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.226 per share by the textile maker on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend 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% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of Gildan Activewear stock traded up $1.19 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $55.09. The company had a trading volume of 747,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 531,408. The company’s 50-day moving average is $49.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.48. Gildan Activewear has a twelve month low of $32.23 and a twelve month high of $55.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The textile maker reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.30). Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 26.88%. The company had revenue of $822.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $805.75 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIL has been the subject of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup upped 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. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price 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, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Gildan Activewear has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $60.00.

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.