GAP (NYSE:GAP) Upgraded at UBS Group

UBS Group upgraded shares of GAP (NYSE:GAP) from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $26.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $16.00.

GAP has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on GAP from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of GAP in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.50.

GAP Price Performance

GAP stock opened at $24.10 on Friday. GAP has a 1 year low of $18.34 and a 1 year high of $30.75. The firm has a market cap of $9.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.68.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.16. GAP had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 29.03%. The firm had revenue of $3.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.81 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that GAP will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

GAP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. GAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.78%.

Insider Activity at GAP

In other GAP news, 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 value of $6,045,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,000,752 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,198,183.36. The trade was a 19.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 243,868 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.02, for a total value of $6,345,445.36. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,820,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99,408,551.34. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 955,375 shares of company stock worth $24,316,219 in the last three months. 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.