Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 831,742 Gildan Activewear, Inc. $GIL

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Gildan Activewear, Inc. (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 831,742 shares of the textile maker’s stock, valued at approximately $42,866,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Barington Companies Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Gildan Activewear during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,941,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 15.7% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,706,078 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $373,122,000 after acquiring an additional 909,001 shares in the last quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Gildan Activewear during the 4th quarter valued at $3,104,000. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. purchased a new position in Gildan Activewear during the 4th quarter valued at $4,353,000. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Gildan Activewear by 103.5% in the 4th quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 205,154 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $12,814,000 after purchasing an additional 104,354 shares in the last quarter. 82.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on GIL. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector outperform” rating and issued a $67.00 target price (up from $65.00) on shares of Gildan Activewear in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $83.00 price target on shares of Gildan Activewear and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Gildan Activewear in a report on Thursday, August 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Gildan Activewear from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $77.00 target price on shares of Gildan Activewear in a report on Friday, May 1st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Gildan Activewear has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.00.

Gildan Activewear Stock Down 0.4%

GIL stock opened at $53.04 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $53.80 and a 200 day moving average of $58.12. The firm has a market cap of $9.82 billion, a PE ratio of 102.00 and a beta of 1.11. Gildan Activewear, Inc. has a twelve month low of $46.55 and a twelve month high of $73.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL) (TSE:GIL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The textile maker reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.17. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 21.03% and a net margin of 1.28%.The business had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 72.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Gildan Activewear, Inc. will post 4.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a $0.249 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Gildan Activewear’s payout ratio is presently 192.31%.

Gildan Activewear Profile

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.