The Gap, Inc. (GPS) To Go Ex-Dividend on July 10th

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GPS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share by the apparel retailer on Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th.

GAP has increased its dividend payment by an average of 35.3% per year over the last three years. GAP has a payout ratio of 38.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect GAP to earn $1.50 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 40.0%.

GAP Price Performance

GAP stock opened at $22.41 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $8.37 billion, a PE ratio of 16.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 2.34. GAP has a one year low of $7.22 and a one year high of $28.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $22.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.19.

GAP (NYSE:GPS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The apparel retailer reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.29. GAP had a return on equity of 22.56% and a net margin of 3.37%. The business had revenue of $4.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.75) earnings per share. GAP’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that GAP will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 45,266 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.58, for a total transaction of $1,022,106.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5,937 shares in the company, valued at $134,057.46. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other GAP news, CFO Katrina O’connell sold 45,266 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.58, for a total transaction of $1,022,106.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 5,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,057.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sarah Gilligan sold 29,425 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.58, for a total value of $664,416.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,318.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 266,723 shares of company stock valued at $6,886,765. 31.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of GAP from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on GAP from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Cowen lifted their target price on GAP from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. TheStreet raised shares of GAP from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of GAP from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, GAP has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.39.

GAP Company Profile

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.