The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $29.33.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on GAP from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday.

GAP Price Performance

Shares of GAP stock opened at $23.24 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.14. GAP has a 1 year low of $18.54 and a 1 year high of $30.75. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

GAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be given a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 9th. This is a boost from GAP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. GAP’s payout ratio is currently 29.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at GAP

In other news, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 123,950 shares of GAP stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total transaction of $3,252,448.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,696,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $96,996,606.08. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of GAP 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 in the company, valued at $24,198,183.36. The trade was a 19.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 31.00% of the company’s stock.

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.