Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 11, 2026
Gap Inc (GAP)
A forensic read on Gap Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
7.7
P / E (ttm)
21.5%
ROE
$7.8B
Market cap
3.41%
Dividend yield
1.9%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Gap Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.5%/yr
FY2023–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 3 years to FY2026 (+1.5%/yr). A change of direction: the count shrank over the full period (net -2.2%/yr since FY2011) but has grown across the recent window, so the two figures point opposite ways — read the recent window on totals versus per-share, since the full-period rate no longer describes what the count is doing now. That's ~1.5% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~4%.
+10.1%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +10.1% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 19% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
12.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.0% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -1% — a modest positive spread over its ~9% cost of capital — growth adds value, though not dramatically.
-39%
FY2020→FY2022
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~39% in FY2022 (from FY2020) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.37B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.9%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-0.5%
Net Margin5.3%
Free Cash Flow$823.0M
Return on Equity21.5%
Debt / Equity0.39x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Gap Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?