Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on ANF. Raymond James dropped their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $149.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $201.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised Abercrombie & Fitch from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $173.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $182.25.

Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Down 2.7 %

Abercrombie & Fitch stock opened at $100.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.92 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $132.14 and a 200-day moving average of $140.85. Abercrombie & Fitch has a 52 week low of $99.51 and a 52 week high of $196.99.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The apparel retailer reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.32 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.19 billion. Abercrombie & Fitch had a return on equity of 46.50% and a net margin of 11.16%. The business’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Abercrombie & Fitch will post 10.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Suzanne M. Coulter sold 2,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total transaction of $459,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,024,800. This trade represents a 30.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Scott D. Lipesky sold 8,605 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.20, for a total value of $1,292,471.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 97,850 shares in the company, valued at $14,697,070. This trade represents a 8.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,401 shares of company stock valued at $2,631,741 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,755,692 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $860,303,000 after purchasing an additional 53,999 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 150.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,484,643 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $221,910,000 after purchasing an additional 892,492 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,229,875 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $183,829,000 after purchasing an additional 212,155 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 63,157 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,037,773 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $155,116,000 after purchasing an additional 115,758 shares during the period.

Abercrombie & Fitch Company Profile

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.