Vanguard Group Inc. Has $860.30 Million Stock Holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,755,692 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after buying an additional 53,999 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.43% of Abercrombie & Fitch worth $860,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 5.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,221,890 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $171,815,000 after buying an additional 63,157 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch by 25.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,017,720 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $142,379,000 after acquiring an additional 204,901 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 23.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 701,798 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $104,898,000 after acquiring an additional 131,970 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 680,930 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $101,779,000 after purchasing an additional 5,493 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 616,228 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $92,108,000 after purchasing an additional 9,248 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANF has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $149.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Abercrombie & Fitch from $220.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $189.00 to $168.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $210.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.88.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Performance

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock opened at $76.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.45. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a 52-week low of $74.31 and a 52-week high of $196.99. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $100.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.48.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The apparel retailer reported $3.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.09. Abercrombie & Fitch had a net margin of 11.16% and a return on equity of 46.50%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 10.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abercrombie & Fitch announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, March 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.30 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the apparel retailer to repurchase up to 29.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch Co engages in the retail of apparel, personal care products, and accessories. The firm operates through following geographical segments: Americas, EMEA and APAC. The Americas segment includes operations in North America and South America. The EMEA segment includes operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.