GAP (NYSE:GAP) Shares Up 3.4% - Should You Buy?

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 3.4% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $20.78 and last traded at $20.89. 787,441 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 6,096,403 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.21.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on GAP. Telsey Advisory Group reissued a "market perform" rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of GAP in a research report on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on GAP from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on GAP from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Argus raised shares of GAP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, GAP has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $29.25.

GAP Trading Up 7.4 %

The firm has a market cap of $8.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.38. The business's 50-day moving average is $22.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

GAP Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 9th. This is a positive change from GAP's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. GAP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.86%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Julie Gruber sold 1,537 shares of GAP stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.59, for a total transaction of $30,109.83. Following the sale, the insider now owns 37,395 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $732,568.05. The trade was a 3.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Elisabeth B. Donohue sold 3,539 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.04, for a total value of $74,460.56. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $84,160. This represents a 46.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 136,731 shares of company stock valued at $2,780,326. 31.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in GAP stock. California State Teachers Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 209,599 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,953,000. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.06% of GAP as of its most recent SEC filing. 58.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.