Cooke & Bieler LP Acquires 169,476 Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Cooke & Bieler LP raised its stake in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL - Free Report) TSE: GIL by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,075,062 shares of the textile maker's stock after purchasing an additional 169,476 shares during the period. Gildan Activewear accounts for about 2.9% of Cooke & Bieler LP's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Cooke & Bieler LP owned 5.92% of Gildan Activewear worth $333,082,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 38.6% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 41,005 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $1,538,000 after acquiring an additional 11,413 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 41.5% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 32,700 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $1,227,000 after acquiring an additional 9,597 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 36.1% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,381 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $127,000 after acquiring an additional 896 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 35.8% during the first quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 19,786 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $742,000 after acquiring an additional 5,212 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 29.4% during the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 33,700 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $1,268,000 after acquiring an additional 7,662 shares during the last quarter. 82.83% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GIL shares. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. UBS Group lowered shares of Gildan Activewear from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Gildan Activewear presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $41.25.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

Gildan Activewear stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $35.20. The company's stock had a trading volume of 786,554 shares, compared to its average volume of 729,643. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $26.98 and a fifty-two week high of $38.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 2.33. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $35.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.93 billion, a PE ratio of 11.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.38.

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

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. Gildan Activewear's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.