Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Raises Position in Gildan Activewear, Inc. $GIL

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear, Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) by 14.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 613,324 shares of the textile maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 75,530 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned approximately 0.33% of Gildan Activewear worth $31,648,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GIL. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 0.9% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,593,203 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $589,508,000 after purchasing an additional 98,134 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,566,962 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $472,964,000 after purchasing an additional 1,561,729 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 20.9% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,911,589 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $384,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,193,718 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 41.2% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 6,860,108 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $429,382,000 after purchasing an additional 2,001,279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,706,078 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $373,122,000 after purchasing an additional 909,001 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Shares of GIL stock opened at $58.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $10.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 112.59 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $54.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Gildan Activewear, Inc. has a 1-year low of $46.00 and a 1-year high of $73.69.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The textile maker reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 1.28%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 72.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Gildan Activewear, Inc. will post 4.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.249 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio is presently 192.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Scotia raised their target price on Gildan Activewear from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Zacks Research upgraded Gildan Activewear from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $83.00 price target on Gildan Activewear and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.07.

Gildan Activewear Profile

Gildan Activewear Inc (NYSE:GIL) is a vertically integrated manufacturer and wholesaler of branded basic apparel, including activewear, socks, hosiery and underwear. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, the company produces a wide range of products such as T-shirts, fleece garments, sport shirts, performance wear, and shapewear under its Gildan, Anvil, Comfort Colors, Gold Toe, Peds and Silks brands. Leveraging its in-house knitting, dyeing, cut-and-sew and finishing operations, Gildan supplies blank apparel to screen printers, promotional product distributors and major retailers around the world.

Since its founding in 1984 by Glenn J.