Finance

The ticker symbol for Gap Inc. is GPS. Gap is involved in the New York Stock exchange.

Over time Gap’s stock performance has fallen. Over the years they have had drastic falls in their stocks, which normally bounce back relatively quickly. However, it has been steadily decreasing over the past couple of years.

There are several industry trends that affect the company's stock prices in the retail industry.  Since this industry is driven by the consumer, it fluctuates depending on the newest advancement available to make things more convenient for the shopper. Some of the newest industry trends include things like artificial intelligence, manpower, and multi-channel shopping. It is shown that around 45% of retailer plan to include artificial intelligence technology between now and 2020. This will affect the way shopping in stores take place and the customer's experience. Recently more stores have been pushing to hire workers whose job is specifically to help the customer shop. This will improve the overall experience of shoppers and is done, in hopes, of increasing sales. Companies are beginning to promote online shopping for their store. It is shown that customers that shop both online and in-store are shown to spend three times as much as customers that just shop at the physical stores. This is paving the way for more brands to actively use e-commerce and improve the customer’s shopping experience online. In the lecture hosted by Rebecca Harris, we touched on Industry trends and how they affect the business done and the products bought by consumers.

 

Gaps financials are going down gradually but they have improved from the 2017 reports. Their gross income in 2014 was 6.23 Billion and in 2018 it was 6.07 Billion. However, in 2017 it was at 5.61 billion so they are definitely rebounding from last years rates. Their sales and revenue are up from last year from 15.52 billion to 15.86 billion. This is a growth of 2.18%. We talked about this in the lecture by Professor Pierson when we were reviewing balance sheets and seeing whether companies are making a profit from their business.

Gap’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is Teri List-Stoll. She is also the executive vice president for Gap. Teri joined Gap Inc. in January of 2017. Before joining the Gap Inc. team, most recently Teri worked for Dick’s Sporting Goods as the executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to this she was the CFO for Kraft Foods Inc., worked in a number of positions at Procter & Gamble Company, and began her career in  Deloitte & Touche LLP. In this role she is required to oversee the company’s global financial function, the global real estate team, and Gap Inc.’s technology team. As the CFO, Teri is responsible for managing Gap Inc. finances; including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financial reporting.