Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on GAP (NYSE:GAP)

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 21,345 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 32% compared to the average daily volume of 16,115 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 80,029 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.35, for a total value of $1,628,590.15. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,290 shares in the company, valued at approximately $168,701.50. This trade represents a 90.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mark Breitbard sold 16,055 shares of GAP stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.43, for a total transaction of $328,003.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,533,013.55. This trade represents a 11.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 136,731 shares of company stock valued at $2,780,326 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 31.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On GAP

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in GAP stock. California State Teachers Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 209,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,953,000. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.06% of GAP as of its most recent SEC filing. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.81% of the company’s stock.

GAP Stock Up 7.5 %

Shares of NYSE GAP traded up $1.50 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $21.52. The company had a trading volume of 5,314,913 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,245,427. The company has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.95, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $22.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.48. GAP has a 12-month low of $18.54 and a 12-month high of $26.41.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.18. GAP had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 29.03%. The business had revenue of $4.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.07 billion. As a group, equities research analysts expect that GAP will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

GAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be paid a $0.165 dividend. This is a boost from GAP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 9th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. GAP’s payout ratio is presently 29.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on GAP. UBS Group decreased their target price on GAP from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Argus raised GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of GAP in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.25.

About GAP

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.