Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.30

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 30th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 12th.

Guess? has raised its dividend payment by an average of 71.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Guess? has a payout ratio of 38.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Guess? to earn $3.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 39.0%.

Guess? Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:GES opened at $22.93 on Tuesday. Guess? has a 52-week low of $17.92 and a 52-week high of $33.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.84 and a beta of 1.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.55.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by $0.13. Guess? had a return on equity of 26.90% and a net margin of 7.97%. The company had revenue of $591.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $574.64 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.07) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Guess? will post 2.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Guess? declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, April 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 14.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Guess?

In other news, CEO Carlos Alberini sold 138,203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.53, for a total value of $4,219,337.59. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,131,575 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,546,984.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 30.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on GES shares. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 price objective (up previously from $33.00) on shares of Guess? in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Guess? from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Guess? in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. UBS Group cut their target price on Guess? from $32.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Guess? from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.25.

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.