Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC bought a new position in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 18,543 shares of the textile maker’s stock, valued at approximately $703,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIL. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 14.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,568,733 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $97,290,000 after purchasing an additional 324,304 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 28.0% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,863,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $70,696,000 after buying an additional 407,113 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in Gildan Activewear by 154.6% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 17,788 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $629,000 after buying an additional 10,800 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 332.7% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 344,666 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $13,070,000 after acquiring an additional 265,020 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 183.1% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 23,523 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $892,000 after acquiring an additional 15,215 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on GIL. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Gildan Activewear from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.50.

Gildan Activewear Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of GIL opened at $47.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.87 billion, a PE ratio of 16.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.43. The company’s fifty day moving average is $42.86 and its 200 day moving average is $38.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 2.35. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.08 and a fifty-two week high of $47.75.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The textile maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $862.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $851.10 million. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 24.96%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were given a dividend of $0.205 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.70%.

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.