Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSE:GIL) Given Average Rating of "Buy" by Analysts

Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSE:GIL - Get Free Report) NYSE: GIL has earned an average rating of "Buy" from the six ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$68.50.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on GIL shares. National Bankshares set a C$83.00 price objective on Gildan Activewear and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group raised Gildan Activewear from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price target on Gildan Activewear from C$82.00 to C$87.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th.

Gildan Activewear Stock Performance

GIL traded up C$1.46 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting C$57.65. The stock had a trading volume of 531,697 shares, compared to its average volume of 431,683. The company's fifty day simple moving average is C$68.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$68.31. Gildan Activewear has a 1 year low of C$44.23 and a 1 year high of C$79.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 101.26. The stock has a market cap of C$6.26 billion, a PE ratio of 15.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 1.64.

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Gildan Activewear (TSE:GIL - Get Free Report) NYSE: GIL last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported C$0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of C$0.82 by C$0.01. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 23.10% and a net margin of 13.05%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Gildan Activewear will post 4.5460385 earnings per share for the current year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th were paid a $0.226 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. This is an increase from Gildan Activewear's previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Gildan Activewear's dividend payout ratio is presently 29.76%.

Insider Activity at Gildan Activewear

In other news, Senior Officer John Maness sold 1,661 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$68.77, for a total value of C$114,234.28. Also, Senior Officer Michael Schroeder sold 4,299 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$78.02, for a total transaction of C$335,428.68. Insiders sold a total of 110,144 shares of company stock valued at $8,568,586 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.26% of the company's stock.

About Gildan Activewear

Gildan is a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of basic apparel, including T-shirts, underwear, socks, and hosiery. Its primary market is the sale of blank T-shirts to wholesalers and printers (printwear). Gildan also sells branded clothing through retail and direct-to-consumer channels.