GAP (NYSE:GAP) Rating Increased to Buy at Argus

GAP (NYSE:GAP) was upgraded by analysts at Argus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $27.00 price target on the stock. Argus’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 9.58% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of GAP in a report on Monday, November 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on GAP from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upgraded GAP from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $16.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.27.

GAP Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of GAP opened at $24.64 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $23.90. GAP has a twelve month low of $18.61 and a twelve month high of $30.75. The stock has a market cap of $9.29 billion, a PE ratio of 11.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 2.36. 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 (NYSE:GAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $3.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.81 billion. GAP had a return on equity of 29.03% and a net margin of 5.40%. GAP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that GAP will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William Sydney Fisher sold 123,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.24, for a total transaction of $3,252,448.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,696,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $96,996,606.08. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert J. Fisher sold 250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.78, for a total value of $6,445,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,579,502 shares in the company, valued at $92,279,561.56. This trade represents a 6.53 % 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 worth $24,316,219 in the last quarter. Corporate 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.