The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Gap, Inc. (NYSE:GPS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Consumer Cyclical company by 0.60% to 26.65 million shares with purchase of 0.16 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.19% valued currently at $534.8 million. In addition, Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings by 3.03 million to 13.19 million shares. And Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has lifted its position by 11.72% or 1.27 million shares – to 12.14 million shares.
With over 6.82 million Gap, Inc. (GPS) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $20.89 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $142.38 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 134.98% and its price on 01/02/24 lost nearly -0.10%. Currently, there are 366.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 212.22M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 23 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for GPS have a consensus price objective of $17.08. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $25.00 and a low of $8.00. The average price target is -22.31% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -161.12% over that period. But an upside of 16.44% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $16.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 85 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 42 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,517,783 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 43 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,315,776 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Gap, Inc. are Dodge & Cox Stock Fund, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, and Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund. Dodge & Cox Stock Fund owns 26.88 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $539.45 million. The company bought an additional 0.15 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 7.25% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF bought 11911.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 8.78 million shares valued at over $176.27 million and representing 2.37% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 21935.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 7.15 million shares at a value of $143.42 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 1.93% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) opened at $20.58, down -$0.33 from a prior closing price of $20.91. However, the script later moved the day high at 20.89, down -0.10%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -1.32% and 93.96% over the past three months. GPS shares are trading -0.10% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 83.25% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $7.22 and touched a high of $22.08 over the same period. GPS has an average intraday trading volume of 9.28 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -1.49%, 19.82%, and 79.78% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) shares accounts for 64.26% of the company’s 366.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 35.65%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 89.02% and 29.60% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $7.75B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 2.17. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 205.41, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.10. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.61% over the week and 3.05% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Gap, Inc. (GPS) will achieve an EPS of $0.22 for the current quarter, $0.1 for the next quarter and $1.2 for 2025. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.34. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.75 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 392.48%, and 2.33% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 23 brokerage firm advisors rate Gap, Inc. (GPS) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.87. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 12 of the 23 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the GPS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Telsey Advisory Group stated their Market Perform rating for the stock in a research note on November 17, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $11-$17.
