gap inc stock rallied 8 in the extended session thursday after the retailer swung to a surprise quarterly profit and reported sales above wall street’s expectations saying it expects to better match inventory with demand by spring gap gps earned 282 million or 77 cents a share in the fiscal third quarter versus a loss of 152 million or 40 cents a share in the yearago quarter adjusted for onetime items gap earned 71 cents a share sales rose 2 to 404 billion the company said analysts polled by factset expected gap to break even on an adjusted basis on sales of 382 billion “we have sharpened our focus on execution to optimize profitability and cash flow are bringing more rigor to our operations and balancing our assortments in response to what our customers are telling us” interim chief executive bob martin said in a statement samestore sales were up 1 year over year with online sales rising 5 compared with last year and representing 39 of total net sales gap said expenses with air freight a path gap and other retailers took to try to sidestep delays related to supplychain snags is expected to “normalize” the company said gap seemed less certain about its discounting strategy saying that it is taking steps to balance inventory “further limiting nearterm discount rate visibility is the uncertain consumer environment and increasingly promotional environment” gap said the retailer expects inventory below 2021 levels by the end of the fiscal year and said that by spring it expects to better align its inventory with demand trends gap in july replaced sonia syngal as chief executive officer with martin named interim ceo then shares of gap have lost about 30 so far this year compared with losses of around 17 for the sp 500 index spx 