Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Short Interest Update

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,390,000 shares, a growth of 5.9% from the May 15th total of 8,870,000 shares. Currently, 33.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,460,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.4 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Carlos Alberini sold 138,203 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.53, for a total value of $4,219,337.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,131,575 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,546,984.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 30.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guess?

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Guess? during the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Guess? in the first quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 405.6% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of Guess? by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,838 shares of the company’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in shares of Guess? during the third quarter worth $201,000. Institutional investors own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GES has been the topic of several research reports. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 price target (up previously from $33.00) on shares of Guess? in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Guess? in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of Guess? from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Guess? from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Guess? from $32.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Guess? presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.25.

Guess? Stock Performance

Shares of GES stock opened at $20.62 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a PE ratio of 6.16 and a beta of 1.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $24.96 and a 200-day moving average of $24.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Guess? has a one year low of $17.92 and a one year high of $33.50.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported ($0.27) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.40) by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $591.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $574.64 million. Guess? had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 26.92%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.07) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Guess? will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Guess? announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, April 1st that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 14.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 12th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 12th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.82%. Guess?’s payout ratio is 35.82%.

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.