GAP (NYSE:GAP) Shares Up 5.4% – Still a Buy?

Shares of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) rose 5.4% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $24.81 and last traded at $24.72. Approximately 861,280 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 3,989,690 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.46.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded GAP from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $28.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Argus upgraded GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America increased their target price on GAP from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of GAP in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of GAP from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, GAP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.27.

GAP Trading Up 0.5 %

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 has a 50-day moving average price of $23.95. The firm has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 2.36.

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

GAP Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. GAP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GAP news, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of the business’s 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 approximately $24,198,183.36. The trade was a 19.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 123,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total transaction of $3,252,448.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,696,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $96,996,606.08. The trade was a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 955,375 shares of company stock worth $24,316,219. 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.