Historic winter storms weigh on Gap, Old Navy performance after 800 temporary store closures

In this article GAP Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Pedestrians in the snow at Times Square during a winter storm in New York, US, on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Historic winter storms and subsequent store closures weighed on Gap's performance during its holiday quarter and contributed to worse-than-expected results at its portfolio of brands, the retailer said Thursday. Cold weather, snow and ice throughout much of the U.S. in January led to about 800 temporary store closures at the storms' peak, contributing to a miss on comparable sales for Old Navy and mixed companywide results, the retailer said. "Old Navy and all the brands were actually trending better heading into that weather disruption," said finance chief Katrina O'Connell. "The good news is the trends recovered immediately after those storms passed." Across the business, which includes Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta and Gap's namesake banner, the retailer reported mixed fiscal fourth quarter results – missing expectations on the bottom line and meeting consensus on revenue. Here's how the retailer did compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: Earnings per share: 45 cents vs. 46 cents expected Revenue: $4.24 billion vs. $4.24 billion expected Gap's stock fell as much as 9% in extended trading Thursday. The company's reported net income for the three-month period that ended Jan. 31 was $171 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with $206 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier. During the quarter, Gap's gross margin was weighed down by tariffs and fell to 38.1%, slightly worse than analysts expected, according to StreetAccount. Sales rose to $4.24 billion, up about 2% compared to $4.15 billion a year earlier. Gap's guidance was largely in line with expectations, but failed to exceed consensus. For the current quarter, it's expecting revenue to rise between 1% and 2%, compared to expectations of 2%, a...