Why Facebook, Gap, Twitter, and More Are In the Spotlight

Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) has rallied by around 6% in after-hours trading after the retailer reported better-than-expected September sales results. For the five-week period ended October 1, Gap’s net sales dropped by just 2% year-over-year to $1.43 billion. Comparable-store sales for September were down by 3%, with a fire which occurred in a building at a distribution center negatively impacting the company’s comparable-sales for the period by approximately 3 percentage points. In terms of specific brand performance, comparable-sales at Gap Global clocked in at a 10% decline, while comps at Banana Republic fell by 9%, and Old Navy Global comps rose by 4%. 32 funds in our database owned shares of Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) at the end of June, up by nine funds from the end of the previous quarter.

Although the big news in the social media space today is that Snapchat’s parent company is working on an IPO that might value it at $25 billion or more, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)‘s Instagram unit isn’t doing too shabby itself. The image filter app’s ephemeral Stories feature, which many believe took some inspiration from Snapchat, has 100 million daily viewers in just two months. Facebook is also trending based on some news stories that its Oculus division is planning to bring virtual reality to the web. The number of funds in our system with holdings in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) fell by 16 during the second quarter to 148 at the end of June.

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