The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) CEO Mark Breitbard Sells 16,055 Shares of Stock

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) CEO Mark Breitbard sold 16,055 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.43, for a total value of $328,003.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,985 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,533,013.55. This represents a 11.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

GAP Price Performance

Shares of GAP stock opened at $20.03 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.55. 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 Gap, Inc. has a one year low of $18.54 and a one year high of $26.41. The firm has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.38.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.18. The firm 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%. On average, analysts expect that The Gap, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GAP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders 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 represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.30%. This is an increase from GAP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. GAP’s payout ratio is presently 29.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GAP. UBS Group reduced their price objective on GAP from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on GAP from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Argus raised GAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on GAP from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of GAP in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.