GAP (NYSE:GAP) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low on Thursday . The company traded as low as $18.54 and last traded at $19.83, with a volume of 16128753 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.09.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on GAP from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Argus raised shares of GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of GAP from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of GAP in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.33.

GAP Stock Performance

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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $23.14. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.36.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.07 billion. GAP had a return on equity of 29.03% and a net margin of 5.40%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Gap, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

GAP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.165 per share. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. GAP’s dividend payout ratio is 30.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GAP news, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.18, for a total transaction of $6,045,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,000,752 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,198,183.36. This represents a 19.99 % decrease in their position. 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 firm’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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.