Investors Purchase High Volume of GAP Call Options (NYSE:GAP)

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 44,102 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 236% compared to the typical volume of 13,116 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of GAP from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of GAP from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on GAP from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.50.

GAP Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of GAP stock traded down $0.34 on Tuesday, reaching $23.74. 3,028,696 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,593,833. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.84. GAP has a fifty-two week low of $18.34 and a fifty-two week high of $30.75. The stock has a market cap of $8.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 2.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.47.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $3.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.81 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that GAP will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GAP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. GAP’s payout ratio is 27.78%.

Insider Activity

In other GAP news, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 123,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total value of $3,252,448.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,696,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $96,996,606.08. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 87,557 shares of GAP stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 955,375 shares of company stock valued at $24,316,219. 31.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

GAP Company Profile

The Gap, Inc operates as an apparel retail company. The company offers apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, and children under the Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta brands. Its products include adult apparel and accessories; and fitness and lifestyle products for use in yoga, training, sports, travel, and everyday activities for women and girls.