Guess? (NYSE:GES) Shares Gap Up - Time to Buy?

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $11.12, but opened at $11.50. Guess? shares last traded at $11.27, with a volume of 67,098 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a "market perform" rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Guess? in a research note on Friday, April 4th. UBS Group increased their target price on Guess? from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd.

Guess? Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $593.76 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.61 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $10.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.70.

Guess? (NYSE:GES - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $932.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $916.75 million. Guess? had a return on equity of 23.29% and a net margin of 3.19%. Guess?'s revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.01 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Guess?, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 16th were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.51%. Guess?'s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 187.50%.

Guess? declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, March 25th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 38.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guess?

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GES. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,290,336 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,261,000 after buying an additional 228,601 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,274,565 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,040,000 after buying an additional 231,926 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,383,177 shares of the company's stock valued at $19,447,000 after buying an additional 167,782 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Guess? by 160.2% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,159,249 shares of the company's stock valued at $16,299,000 after acquiring an additional 713,666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Guess? by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,020,538 shares of the company's stock valued at $14,349,000 after acquiring an additional 80,944 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.74% of the company's stock.

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.

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