Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.23

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of 0.226 per share by the textile maker on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This is a boost from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Gildan Activewear has raised its dividend payment by an average of 21.1% annually over the last three years. Gildan Activewear has a dividend payout ratio of 20.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Gildan Activewear to earn $3.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.3%.

Gildan Activewear Stock Up 2.2 %

GIL traded up $1.19 during trading on Thursday, reaching $55.09. 747,166 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 531,408. The stock has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $49.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.48. Gildan Activewear has a twelve month low of $32.23 and a twelve month high of $55.12. 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) (TSE:GIL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The textile maker reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.30). Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 26.88%. The business had revenue of $822.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $805.75 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Gildan Activewear’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Gildan Activewear will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GIL. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group upped their target price on Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Gildan Activewear from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.00.

Gildan Activewear Company Profile

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.