Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 26,329 Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lessened its position in Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) by 1.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,487,800 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 26,329 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 0.95% of Gildan Activewear worth $70,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GIL. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 204.8% in the second quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 881,100 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $33,416,000 after acquiring an additional 591,980 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 28.0% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,863,618 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $70,696,000 after purchasing an additional 407,113 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 31.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,573,695 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $59,674,000 after purchasing an additional 377,135 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,568,733 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $97,290,000 after buying an additional 324,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 2.7% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 10,252,785 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $388,786,000 after buying an additional 271,273 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GIL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on Gildan Activewear from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.85.

Gildan Activewear Trading Up 0.7 %

GIL stock opened at $49.83 on Monday. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.68 and a 52 week high of $50.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 2.31. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.48. The company has a market capitalization of $7.68 billion, a PE ratio of 19.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.44.

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

Gildan Activewear Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.152 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.61 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is 32.41%.

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.