Guess? (NYSE:GES) Trading Up 4.8% After Analyst Upgrade

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 4.8% during trading on Thursday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $11.00 to $12.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Guess? traded as high as $11.49 and last traded at $11.58. 84,405 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 94% from the average session volume of 1,424,998 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.05.

Separately, Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of Guess? in a report on Friday, April 4th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guess?

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Guess? by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,274,565 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,040,000 after acquiring an additional 231,926 shares during the period. KBC Group NV bought a new stake in shares of Guess? in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,349,000. Atlas Legacy Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Guess? during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,191,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 167,782 shares during the period. Finally, Tieton Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Guess? by 95.6% during the 4th quarter. Tieton Capital Management LLC now owns 463,726 shares of the company's stock worth $6,520,000 after buying an additional 226,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.74% of the company's stock.

Guess? Price Performance

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 stock has a market capitalization of $580.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.38 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.71.

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

Guess? Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. 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 10.75%. Guess?'s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 187.50%.

Guess? declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, March 25th that allows the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 38.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About Guess?

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.