Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.23

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of 0.226 per share by the textile maker on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Gildan Activewear has increased 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 %

GIL stock traded up $1.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $55.09. 747,166 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 529,781. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.48. The company has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41. Gildan Activewear has a twelve month low of $32.23 and a twelve month high of $55.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on GIL. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 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, According to MarketBeat.com, 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.