GAP (NYSE:GAP) Trading Up 5.4% – Still a Buy?

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP)’s stock price rose 5.4% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $24.81 and last traded at $24.72. Approximately 861,280 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 3,989,690 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.46.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of GAP in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America increased their target price on GAP from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upgraded GAP from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $16.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on GAP from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.27.

GAP Stock Up 6.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $9.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.84.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.16. GAP had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 29.03%. The company had revenue of $3.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.81 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Gap, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GAP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. GAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 87,557 shares of GAP stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.45, for a total value of $2,228,325.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.18, for a total value of $6,045,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,000,752 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,198,183.36. This trade represents a 19.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 955,375 shares of company stock valued at $24,316,219 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 31.00% of the company’s stock.

GAP Company Profile

Gap, Inc operates as a global apparel retail company, which offers clothing, apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, and children. The firm operates through the following segments: Gap Global, Old Navy Global, Banana Republic Global, Athleta, and Other. The Gap Global segment includes apparel and accessories for men and women under the Gap brand, along with the GapKids, BabyGap, GapMaternity, GapBody, and GapFit collections.