Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Guess? (NYSE:GES)

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 3,856 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 74% compared to the average daily volume of 2,214 put options.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Deborah Weinswig sold 6,896 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.03, for a total transaction of $158,814.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,173 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $441,554.19. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 49.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Guess?

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in Guess? by 134.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,439,324 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,995,000 after purchasing an additional 824,836 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in Guess? by 147.8% during the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,378,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,828,000 after purchasing an additional 822,089 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can bought a new position in Guess? during the 2nd quarter valued at about $15,686,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Guess? by 158.6% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,170,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,220,000 after purchasing an additional 717,977 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Guess? during the 3rd quarter valued at about $13,335,000. 61.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GES shares. TheStreet upgraded shares of Guess? from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Guess? in a research note on Thursday, November 16th. B. Riley started coverage on shares of Guess? in a research note on Monday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $31.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Guess? in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.33.

Guess? Price Performance

GES stock traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $23.74. The company had a trading volume of 196,392 shares, compared to its average volume of 881,266. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.33 and a beta of 1.91. Guess? has a 12-month low of $17.21 and a 12-month high of $24.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $22.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.88.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 23rd. The company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $664.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $640.50 million. Guess? had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 31.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.39 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Guess? will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 6th were issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 5th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.05%. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

About Guess?

Guess?, Inc designs, markets, distributes, and licenses lifestyle collections of apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. It operates through five segments: Americas Retail, Americas Wholesale, Europe, Asia, and Licensing. The company's clothing collection includes jeans, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts, blouses, shirts, jackets, activewear, knitwear, and intimate apparel.