LSV Asset Management Increases Holdings in Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES)

LSV Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,447,889 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 69,500 shares during the quarter. LSV Asset Management owned 2.70% of Guess? worth $33,388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Guess? by 266.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Guess? by 405.6% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 2,300 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in Guess? by 19.3% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,838 shares of the company’s stock valued at $135,000 after buying an additional 944 shares in the last quarter. EMC Capital Management lifted its stake in Guess? by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 9,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $195,000 after buying an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in Guess? in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Guess?

In related news, CEO Carlos Alberini sold 211,797 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.32, for a total value of $6,421,685.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,499,668.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 30.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Guess? Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of GES opened at $26.71 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $27.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.55. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of 9.21 and a beta of 1.98. Guess?, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.21 and a fifty-two week high of $33.50.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 20th. The company reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $891.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $855.54 million. Guess? had a return on equity of 30.02% and a net margin of 7.14%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Guess?, Inc. will post 2.91 EPS for the current year.

Guess? announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, April 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $200.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 14.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.49%. Guess?’s payout ratio is 41.38%.

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.