Guess? (NYSE:GES) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $32.00 to $29.00. The stock had previously closed at $24.77, but opened at $24.11. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Guess? shares last traded at $24.12, with a volume of 97,203 shares traded.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on GES. StockNews.com upgraded Guess? from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 price target (up previously from $33.00) on shares of Guess? in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Guess? from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group upped their price objective on shares of Guess? from $23.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.25.

Insider Activity at Guess?

In other news, CEO Carlos Alberini sold 211,797 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.32, for a total value of $6,421,685.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,499,668.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 30.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guess?

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GES. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Guess? during the 4th quarter valued at $23,062,000. LSV Asset Management raised its position in Guess? by 147.8% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Guess? during the third quarter worth about $13,335,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,879,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $122,090,000 after purchasing an additional 525,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Guess? by 830.6% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 440,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,167,000 after purchasing an additional 393,534 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Guess? Trading Down 4.5 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $27.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.85. The company has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of 8.29 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.46. Guess? had a net margin of 7.14% and a return on equity of 30.02%. The business had revenue of $891.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $855.54 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.74 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Guess?, Inc. will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.07%. Guess?’s payout ratio is 41.38%.

Guess? declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, April 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 14.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Guess? Company Profile

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.