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

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, June 6th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 18th will be given a dividend of 0.30 per share on Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 18th.

Guess? has a dividend payout ratio of 70.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 0.1%

Shares of NYSE GES traded up $0.01 on Monday, reaching $12.04. 984,932 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,215,592. Guess? has a 12 month low of $8.48 and a 12 month high of $24.64. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $10.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.31. The company has a market cap of $626.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.12 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

Guess? (NYSE:GES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 5th. The company reported ($0.44) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.70) by $0.26. Guess? had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 23.29%. The firm had revenue of $647.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $630.61 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.27) earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Guess? will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Guess?

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Guess? by 82.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 282,196 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,124,000 after acquiring an additional 127,274 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in Guess? by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 271,920 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,010,000 after acquiring an additional 7,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in Guess? by 49.3% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 28,031 shares of the company's stock valued at $310,000 after acquiring an additional 9,260 shares during the last quarter. 61.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Guess? declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, March 25th that allows the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 38.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on GES shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Guess? from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Telsey Advisory Group restated a "market perform" rating and set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Guess? in a research report on Monday, June 2nd.

Guess? Company Profile

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.