Natixis Invests $963,000 in Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES)

Natixis bought a new position in shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 30,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $963,000. Natixis owned approximately 0.06% of Guess? at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Guess? during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Guess? during the first quarter worth about $60,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Guess? by 405.6% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Guess? by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,838 shares of the company’s stock worth $135,000 after purchasing an additional 944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new position in Guess? in the first quarter valued at about $208,000. 61.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GES has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Guess? in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $37.00 target price (up from $33.00) on shares of Guess? in a research note on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Guess? from $32.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Guess? from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.25.

Guess? Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GES traded up $0.71 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $23.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 52,334 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,282,316. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.61. Guess?, Inc. has a one year low of $17.92 and a one year high of $33.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.87 and a beta of 1.92.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by $0.13. The business had revenue of $591.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $574.64 million. Guess? had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 26.92%. Guess?’s revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.07) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Guess?, Inc. will post 2.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 12th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.06%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 12th. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.82%.

Guess? announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, April 1st that permits the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 14.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.