GAP (NYSE:GAP) Shares Gap Up Following Strong Earnings

Shares of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $19.48, but opened at $22.46. GAP shares last traded at $22.18, with a volume of 3,038,326 shares changing hands.

The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.07 billion. GAP had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 29.03%.

GAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be given a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 9th. This is a positive change from GAP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.01%. GAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.56%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upgraded GAP from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $16.00 to $26.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Argus upgraded shares of GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.33.

Insider Activity

In other GAP news, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 123,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total value of $3,252,448.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,696,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $96,996,606.08. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of GAP stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.18, for a total transaction of $6,045,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,000,752 shares in the company, valued at $24,198,183.36. This trade represents a 19.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 31.00% of the company’s stock.

GAP Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $23.17. 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 market capitalization of $8.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.36.

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.