Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Purchases Shares of 515,000 Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL - Free Report) TSE: GIL during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 515,000 shares of the textile maker's stock, valued at approximately $24,262,000. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned 0.34% of Gildan Activewear as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Gildan Activewear by 6.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 35,135 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $1,702,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in Gildan Activewear by 76.1% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 40,798 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $1,922,000 after acquiring an additional 17,634 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear during the 3rd quarter worth $597,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear during the 3rd quarter valued at $969,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 637,407 shares of the textile maker's stock worth $29,708,000 after purchasing an additional 41,735 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.83% of the company's stock.

Gildan Activewear Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE GIL traded down $0.17 on Monday, reaching $48.65. 421,480 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 711,202. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a 12 month low of $30.68 and a 12 month high of $50.60. The company has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.30, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $48.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 2.31.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL - Get Free Report) TSE: GIL last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The textile maker reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.85. The firm had revenue of $891.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $882.85 million. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 26.88% and a net margin of 13.06%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.152 dividend. This represents a $0.61 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Gildan Activewear's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.41%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GIL. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. CIBC raised their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $48.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Gildan Activewear from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gildan Activewear has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.05.

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.