National Bank of Canada FI Purchases 537,215 Shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL)

National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in shares of Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) by 43.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,762,761 shares of the textile maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 537,215 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned 1.05% of Gildan Activewear worth $65,451,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GIL. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Gildan Activewear by 86.5% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,074 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 69.2% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 2,200 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in Gildan Activewear by 529.3% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,215 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 1,863 shares during the period. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Gildan Activewear during the 1st quarter worth $84,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear during the first quarter worth $122,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $41.00 target price on shares of Gildan Activewear in a report on Monday, April 8th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Gildan Activewear from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.95.

Gildan Activewear Price Performance

NYSE:GIL traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $38.91. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 501,519 shares, compared to its average volume of 767,535. Gildan Activewear Inc. has a twelve month low of $26.99 and a twelve month high of $40.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 2.38 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.69. The company has a market capitalization of $6.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.15, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.43.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The textile maker reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $695.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $692.94 million. Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 16.14% and a return on equity of 24.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Gildan Activewear Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd were paid a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 22nd. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is 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.