GAP (NYSE:GAP) Raised to Overweight at Wells Fargo & Company

GAP (NYSE:GAP) was upgraded by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $30.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $24.00. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 10.19% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GAP. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of GAP from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Robert W. Baird set a $33.00 price target on GAP and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Zacks Research upgraded GAP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on GAP from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group upgraded GAP from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $26.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, GAP presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.86.

GAP Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of GAP stock opened at $27.23 on Tuesday. GAP has a fifty-two week low of $16.99 and a fifty-two week high of $29.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.72. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $24.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.15, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 2.28.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.90 billion. GAP had a net margin of 5.57% and a return on equity of 24.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that GAP will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other GAP news, Director Robert J. Fisher sold 500,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.45, for a total value of $13,725,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,329,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,944,829.90. This represents a 17.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Julie Gruber sold 62,073 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total transaction of $1,675,971.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 37,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,009,665. This trade represents a 62.40% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,819,044 shares of company stock worth $47,467,065. Corporate insiders own 30.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GAP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GAP. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new stake in GAP in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $7,207,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new position in GAP during the first quarter worth $63,674,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. acquired a new position in GAP during the first quarter worth $3,532,000. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of GAP during the first quarter worth $856,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of GAP by 101.0% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 3,184,477 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,453,000 after buying an additional 1,600,041 shares in the last quarter. 58.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.