Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Short Interest Up 6.3% in March

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,550,000 shares, an increase of 6.3% from the March 15th total of 7,100,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.7 days. Currently, 28.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Guess? Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of Guess? stock opened at $25.54 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.04. Guess? has a 52-week low of $17.21 and a 52-week high of $33.50. The firm has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a PE ratio of 8.81 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.55.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $891.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $855.54 million. Guess? had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 7.14%. Guess?’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Guess? will post 2.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Guess? news, CEO Carlos Alberini sold 211,797 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.32, for a total transaction of $6,421,685.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,269,778 shares in the company, valued at $38,499,668.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 41.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GES. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Guess? by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Guess? by 48.5% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 22,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $490,000 after acquiring an additional 7,322 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its holdings in shares of Guess? by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 33,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $734,000 after acquiring an additional 4,152 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. acquired a new position in shares of Guess? during the 1st quarter worth approximately $391,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its holdings in shares of Guess? by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 37,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $833,000 after acquiring an additional 2,112 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 price objective (up previously from $33.00) on shares of Guess? in a report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Guess? from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Guess? from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. StockNews.com upgraded Guess? from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group lifted their target price on Guess? from $23.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.00.

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.