Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Short Interest Down 10.3% in December

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

Guess? Trading Up 1.4 %

GES stock traded up $0.20 on Wednesday, reaching $14.06. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 845,304 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,126,227. Guess? has a 12-month low of $13.31 and a 12-month high of $33.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.54. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.17. The firm has a market cap of $723.49 million, a PE ratio of 11.82 and a beta of 1.89.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $738.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $747.36 million. Guess? had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 23.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.49 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Guess? will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. Guess?’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.84%.

Institutional Trading of Guess?

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GES. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in Guess? by 186.2% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 849 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Guess? by 11.5% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 16,627 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 1,720 shares in the last quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Guess? by 14.0% in the third quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 1,989 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its position in Guess? by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 113,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,290,000 after acquiring an additional 2,288 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Guess? by 216.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 2,299 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.