The Gap, Inc. (GAP) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 9th

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 25th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be given a dividend of 0.165 per share on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 9th. This is a 10.0% increase from GAP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

GAP has a payout ratio of 25.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect GAP to earn $2.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.66 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.8%.

GAP Stock Performance

GAP opened at $19.13 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $7.17 billion, a PE ratio of 8.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.14. GAP has a 1 year low of $16.99 and a 1 year high of $26.41. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $4.15 billion for 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that GAP will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at GAP

In other GAP news, CEO Mark Breitbard sold 16,055 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.43, for a total value of $328,003.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,985 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,533,013.55. This represents a 11.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 80,029 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.35, for a total value of $1,628,590.15. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $168,701.50. This trade represents a 90.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 177,495 shares of company stock valued at $3,598,459 over the last ninety days. 31.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on GAP from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Argus raised GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of GAP in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of GAP from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.25.

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.