Reuters: Global Markets: Gap beats Wall Street's profit estimates

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Gap beats Wall Street's profit estimates May 17th 2012, 21:17 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Gap sales rise, profit stays steady 4:17pm EDT Abercrombie sales weak, shares fall 13 percent Wed, May 16 2012 Cisco outlook underwhelms, economy fears persist Wed, May 9 2012 Wall Street drops before jobs data, LinkedIn up late Thu, May 3 2012 April turns weak for retailers; apparel bucks trend Thu, May 3 2012 Analysis & Opinion Euro stocks discount lion's share of new fear China bank pay is the wrong target for reform Related Topics Hot Stocks » Asian Markets » A woman walks past the Gap flagship store in San Francisco, California August 18, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith Thu May 17, 2012 5:17pm EDT (Reuters) - Gap Inc (GPS.N) raised its yearly profit forecast, prompted by first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates and by rising sales, sending its shares up 8 percent in extended trading. For the first quarter ended April 28, the owner of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic chains earned $233 million, or 47 cents a share, compared with $233 million, or 40 cents a share, last year. Analysts, on average, were expecting Gap to earn 46 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. After years of being accused of selling boring clothes, Gap has recently regained an edge in fashion - after a prolonged turnaround which included a change in top management. The company's Spring merchandise is selling well, and its website has been revamped with a more youthful look. Gap, the third biggest clothes retailer in the world after Zara, owned by Inditex (ITX.MC), and H&M, owned by Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMb.ST), had preannounced that sales rose 6 percent to $3.49 billion, while comparable store sales were up 4 percent. During the quarter, sales at established North American stores rose 5 percent each for the Gap and Banana Republic brands. Sales at Old Navy stores rose 4 percent, the company said. For the full year, Gap estimates earning $1.78 to $1.83 a share, above the $1.75 to $1.80 it had forecast in February. Gap shares rose to $28.50 after the bell. They closed down 2.9 percent at $26.31 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago; Editing by Andre Grenon, Phil Berlowitz and Richard Chang) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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