563,583 Shares of The Gap, Inc. $GAP Bought by Candriam S.C.A.

Candriam S.C.A. bought a new stake in The Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GAP) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 563,583 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,919,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ethic Inc. acquired a new position in GAP during the third quarter worth approximately $357,000. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of GAP by 73.7% during the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 6,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 2,777 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of GAP during the third quarter worth approximately $634,000. Monte Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of GAP by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Monte Financial Group LLC now owns 278,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,367,000 after acquiring an additional 34,992 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of GAP in the 3rd quarter valued at $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research increased their price target on shares of GAP from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of GAP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. UBS Group raised their price target on GAP from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded GAP from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on GAP from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “cautious” rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, GAP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.07.

GAP Stock Up 3.5%

Shares of NYSE:GAP opened at $22.23 on Tuesday. The Gap, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.11 and a fifty-two week high of $29.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.02. The company has a market cap of $7.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 2.12.

GAP (NYSE:GAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. GAP had a net margin of 8.14% and a return on equity of 19.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.57 earnings per share. GAP has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.350-2.450 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Gap, Inc. will post 2.40 earnings per share for the current year.

GAP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 7th were given a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 7th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. GAP’s payout ratio is presently 20.90%.

Insider Activity at GAP

In other news, Director William Fisher sold 500,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.89, for a total value of $11,945,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 15,903,198 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $379,927,400.22. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Julie Gruber sold 27,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.56, for a total value of $648,795.28. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,876 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $727,438.56. This represents a 47.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 1,027,538 shares of company stock worth $24,249,556 in the last quarter. 31.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

GAP Company Profile