GAP (NYSE:GAP) Upgraded to “Buy” at Argus

Argus upgraded shares of GAP (NYSE:GAP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $27.00 target price on the stock.

GAP has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price 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 lifted their price objective on GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of GAP from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $30.00 in a report on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group upgraded shares of GAP from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $16.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of GAP in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.27.

GAP Price Performance

NYSE GAP opened at $24.75 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a PE ratio of 11.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 2.36. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.95. 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 has a one year low of $18.61 and a one year high of $30.75.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that GAP will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GAP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.42%. GAP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.78%.

Insider Activity at GAP

In related news, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,000,752 shares in the company, valued at $24,198,183.36. The trade was a 19.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 87,557 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.45, for a total value of $2,228,325.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 955,375 shares of company stock valued at $24,316,219 over the last three months. 31.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.