Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,020,000 shares, a decline of 10.3% from the November 30th total of 7,830,000 shares. Approximately 23.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 907,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GES has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Telsey Advisory Group lowered their price objective on Guess? from $21.00 to $18.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Guess? from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.00.

Guess? Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Guess? stock traded up $0.20 on Wednesday, hitting $14.06. 845,304 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,126,227. The company has a fifty day moving average of $16.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.21. Guess? has a one year low of $13.31 and a one year high of $33.50. The company has a market capitalization of $723.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.82 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $738.52 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $747.36 million. Guess? had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 23.29%. Guess?’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Guess? will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. Guess?’s payout ratio is 100.84%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Guess?

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GES. Pacer Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Guess? in the 2nd quarter valued at about $82,286,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Guess? by 2,180.2% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,370,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,951,000 after acquiring an additional 1,310,042 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Guess? by 8,708.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 691,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,910,000 after acquiring an additional 683,185 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of Guess? by 75.7% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 914,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,039,000 after purchasing an additional 394,023 shares during the period. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Guess? by 423.1% in the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 191,982 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,916,000 after purchasing an additional 155,281 shares in the last quarter. 61.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.