Renaissance Technologies LLC Buys 16,450 Shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES)

Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) by 16.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 116,850 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 16,450 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Guess? were worth $2,384,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its position in Guess? by 14.1% in the first quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,141,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,910,000 after purchasing an additional 141,000 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Guess? by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 800,163 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,452,000 after buying an additional 90,205 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Guess? in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,029,000. Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Guess? during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,784,000. Finally, Natixis bought a new stake in Guess? during the 1st quarter worth approximately $963,000. 61.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Guess? Stock Performance

Shares of GES stock opened at $19.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a PE ratio of 5.88 and a beta of 1.92. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Guess?, Inc. has a one year low of $18.52 and a one year high of $33.50.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.01). Guess? had a net margin of 6.05% and a return on equity of 24.18%. The firm had revenue of $732.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $729.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Guess?, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Guess? Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th were given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 11th. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.82%.

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.