Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Carter’s, Inc. (NYSE:CRI) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,020,000 shares, an increase of 9.2% from the March 31st total of 3,680,000 shares. Approximately 11.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 808,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CRI. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Carter’s from $66.00 to $64.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Carter’s from $76.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Carter’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Carter’s from $75.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Carter’s from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Hipp sold 1,875 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.74, for a total transaction of $153,262.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,216 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,055.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Carter’s

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CRI. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Carter’s in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Carter’s by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 630 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Carter’s by 457.2% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 808 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Carter’s in the first quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Carter’s in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $204,000.

Carter’s Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE CRI traded down $1.66 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $68.78. 236,409 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 788,420. Carter’s has a 1 year low of $60.65 and a 1 year high of $88.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $79.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $74.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

Carter’s (NYSE:CRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The textile maker reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $858.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $867.81 million. Carter’s had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 28.55%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.29 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Carter’s will post 6.3 EPS for the current year.

Carter’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 8th. This is a positive change from Carter’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Carter’s’s dividend payout ratio is 50.47%.

About Carter’s

Carter's, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, sources, and markets branded childrenswear under the Carter's, OshKosh, Skip Hop, Child of Mine, Just One You, Simple Joys, Little Planet, and other brands in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S.