Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL)

Gildan Activewear, Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 5,005 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 734% compared to the average daily volume of 600 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec raised its position in Gildan Activewear by 1,695.7% in the 4th quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 6,240,014 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $390,539,000 after purchasing an additional 5,892,514 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear during the fourth quarter worth about $151,018,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Gildan Activewear by 41.2% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 6,860,108 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $429,382,000 after buying an additional 2,001,279 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Gildan Activewear during the fourth quarter worth approximately $99,870,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,566,962 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $472,964,000 after acquiring an additional 1,561,729 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.83% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GIL shares. Weiss Ratings lowered Gildan Activewear from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $77.00 price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear in a report on Friday, May 1st. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $80.00 target price on shares of Gildan Activewear and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.21.

Gildan Activewear Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of GIL traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $51.18. 650,409 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,404,748. Gildan Activewear has a 52-week low of $46.00 and a 52-week high of $73.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 2.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.65. The firm has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.11 and a beta of 1.11.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The textile maker reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.07. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 21.38% and a net margin of 6.10%.The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 63.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Gildan Activewear has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.200-4.400 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Gildan Activewear will post 4.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.249 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio is 58.24%.

About Gildan Activewear

Gildan Activewear Inc (NYSE:GIL) is a vertically integrated manufacturer and wholesaler of branded basic apparel, including activewear, socks, hosiery and underwear. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, the company produces a wide range of products such as T-shirts, fleece garments, sport shirts, performance wear, and shapewear under its Gildan, Anvil, Comfort Colors, Gold Toe, Peds and Silks brands. Leveraging its in-house knitting, dyeing, cut-and-sew and finishing operations, Gildan supplies blank apparel to screen printers, promotional product distributors and major retailers around the world.

Since its founding in 1984 by Glenn J.