17,380 Shares in Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) Acquired by Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 17,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GES. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Guess? by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,290,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,261,000 after purchasing an additional 228,601 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Guess? by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,274,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,040,000 after buying an additional 231,926 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Guess? by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,383,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,447,000 after buying an additional 167,782 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Guess? by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 715,343 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,514,000 after acquiring an additional 24,313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tieton Capital Management LLC increased its position in Guess? by 95.6% in the 4th quarter. Tieton Capital Management LLC now owns 463,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,520,000 after acquiring an additional 226,705 shares in the last quarter. 61.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GES. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Guess? from $15.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective on shares of Guess? in a research report on Friday, April 4th.

Guess? Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of GES opened at $12.15 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $629.83 million, a PE ratio of 10.21 and a beta of 1.25. Guess?, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.48 and a 12-month high of $27.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

Guess? (NYSE:GES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $932.25 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $916.75 million. Guess? had a net margin of 3.19% and a return on equity of 23.29%. The company’s revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.01 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Guess?, Inc. will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Guess? Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th were paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.88%. Guess?’s payout ratio is presently 187.50%.

Guess? announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, March 25th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 38.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.