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

Gildan Activewear Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.226 per share by the textile maker on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This is a 48.7% increase 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 22.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Gildan Activewear to earn $3.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.7%.

Gildan Activewear Stock Performance

Shares of GIL opened at $49.55 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 2.22. Gildan Activewear has a twelve month low of $32.23 and a twelve month high of $55.39. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $50.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.48. The firm has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.39.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The textile maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by ($0.30). Gildan Activewear had a net margin of 12.26% and a return on equity of 28.80%. The company had revenue of $822.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $805.75 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Gildan Activewear from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.00.

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.