Piper Jaffray Reiterates Neutral on Gap

Piper Jaffray maintains its Neutral rating on Gap GPS as it sees its premium in Asia lagging compared to other US competitors operating there. Piper Jaffray comments, "The HK store brings the total store count in China to nine with another couple planned by YE and plans to have 45 open by next year. That said, our in-store pricing analysis only pointed to a 4% premium to US pricing, well below the strong double-digit range of other US brands that have expanded in the region. While we view China as a longer-term opportunity, we believe the company needs to further evaluate and shrink the overall domestic square footage opportunity across its portfolio and as such, rate shares of GPS." GPS closed at $18.30 per share on Friday.