Willis Investment Counsel Has $1.25 Million Stock Position in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Willis Investment Counsel lowered its holdings in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL - Free Report) TSE: GIL by 19.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,303 shares of the textile maker's stock after selling 6,864 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel's holdings in Gildan Activewear were worth $1,252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GIL. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 561.9% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,423 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 11,007 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 1,033 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 545.1% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,210,314 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $57,403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022,695 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 76.8% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 19,401 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $913,000 after purchasing an additional 8,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 899.0% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,009 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 908 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 report on Thursday, February 20th. CIBC lowered their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Gildan Activewear in a report on Monday, April 28th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $51.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank raised shares of Gildan Activewear to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $55.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $57.91.

Gildan Activewear Stock Performance

Shares of Gildan Activewear stock traded up $1.54 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $47.86. The company's stock had a trading volume of 519,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 633,407. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $45.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 2.22. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a one year low of $36.91 and a one year high of $55.39. The stock has a market cap of $7.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.20.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL - Get Free Report) TSE: GIL last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The textile maker reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 12.26% and a return on equity of 28.80%. The company had revenue of $711.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $715.29 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 20th will be given a $0.226 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. Gildan Activewear's dividend payout ratio is presently 34.75%.

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.