Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Short Interest Update

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,330,000 shares, a decrease of 5.2% from the September 30th total of 8,790,000 shares. Currently, 26.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 799,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 10.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GES has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Guess? from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Telsey Advisory Group reduced their price objective on Guess? from $26.00 to $21.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.25.

Guess? Price Performance

Shares of Guess? stock traded up $0.25 on Friday, hitting $17.24. 164,299 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,125,467. Guess? has a 52 week low of $16.88 and a 52 week high of $33.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $886.48 million, a P/E ratio of 6.85 and a beta of 1.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.00.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $732.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $729.96 million. Guess? had a return on equity of 24.18% and a net margin of 6.05%. Guess?’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.72 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Guess? will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.96%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 11th. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.39%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Guess?

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GES. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Guess? during the first quarter worth $4,029,000. Natixis bought a new stake in shares of Guess? during the first quarter valued at approximately $963,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 15.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,879,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,090,000 after purchasing an additional 525,064 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Guess? by 76.2% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 776,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,448,000 after buying an additional 335,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Guess? by 110.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 78,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,605,000 after purchasing an additional 41,331 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

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.