Gap Q4 Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - Gap Inc. (GPS) reported net income for the fourth quarter of $307 million or $0.68 per share, compared to $351 million or $0.73 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Net sales for the fourth quarter fell to $4.58 billion from $4.73 billion in the same quarter last year. The company's fourth quarter same-store sales were up 1%.

Analyst polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.68 per share on revenue of $4.60 billion for the fourth quarter.

Looking forward, the company forecasts fiscal year 2014 earnings per share to be in the range of $2.90 to $2.95. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $3.02 per share for the fiscal year 2014.

The company also said that its Board of Directors has approved a plan to increase the company's annual dividend per share by 10% to $0.88 per share for fiscal year 2014. This represents more than a 75% increase in the company's annual dividend per share in the last two years.

The company also announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the first quarter fiscal year 2014 dividend of $0.22 per share, payable on or after April 30 to shareholders of record on April 9.