VELA Investment Management LLC Decreases Stake in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

VELA Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL - Free Report) TSE: GIL by 57.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,183 shares of the textile maker's stock after selling 36,344 shares during the quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC's holdings in Gildan Activewear were worth $899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 1.6% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 10,996,538 shares of the textile maker's stock valued at $308,013,000 after buying an additional 168,601 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 1.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,401,045 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $179,293,000 after purchasing an additional 97,924 shares during the last quarter. Browning West LP grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 7.1% in the first quarter. Browning West LP now owns 6,395,548 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $212,268,000 after purchasing an additional 425,000 shares during the last quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 2.5% in the third quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,884,333 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $81,092,000 after purchasing an additional 69,563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guardian Capital LP grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 3.2% in the third quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 2,739,070 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $77,128,000 after purchasing an additional 84,744 shares during the last quarter. 82.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on GIL shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Gildan Activewear from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. CIBC raised their target price on Gildan Activewear from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. TD Securities raised their target price on Gildan Activewear from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Stifel Canada cut Gildan Activewear from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, UBS Group cut Gildan Activewear from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $41.25.

Gildan Activewear Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of GIL stock traded down $0.26 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $35.33. 590,203 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 839,745. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $35.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.43. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a 12-month low of $26.98 and a 12-month high of $38.87. The stock has a market cap of $5.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.66, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL - Get Free Report) TSE: GIL last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The textile maker reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 16.70% and a return on equity of 23.19%. The firm had revenue of $782.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $753.35 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.205 per share. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. This is a positive change from Gildan Activewear's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. Gildan Activewear's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.06%.

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.