Julie Gruber Sells 1,537 Shares of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) Stock

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) insider Julie Gruber sold 1,537 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.59, for a total transaction of $30,109.83. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately $732,568.05. The trade was a 3.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

GAP Stock Up 4.5 %

Shares of NYSE GAP opened at $20.19 on Thursday. The Gap, Inc. has a one year low of $18.54 and a one year high of $26.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.35, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.38.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, analysts expect that The Gap, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be issued a $0.165 dividend. This is a boost from GAP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 9th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. GAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in GAP stock. California State Teachers Retirement System bought a new position in The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GAP shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of GAP from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of GAP from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of GAP in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.