The Gap, Inc. (GAP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.15 on January 29th

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 12th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share on Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th.

GAP has a dividend payout ratio of 25.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect GAP to earn $2.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.8%.

GAP Stock Performance

NYSE:GAP opened at $24.22 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $23.42. GAP has a one year low of $18.34 and a one year high of $30.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion, a PE ratio of 11.21, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 2.37.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.16. The firm 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that GAP will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder John J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of GAP stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 1,000,752 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,198,183.36. The trade was a 19.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 243,868 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.02, for a total value of $6,345,445.36. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,820,467 shares in the company, valued at $99,408,551.34. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 955,375 shares of company stock valued at $24,316,219 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 31.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GAP. UBS Group increased their price target on GAP from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of GAP in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.50.

About GAP

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.