Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) saw a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,040,000 shares, a decline of 16.9% from the February 28th total of 4,860,000 shares. Currently, 8.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,360,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James set a $110.00 price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group decreased their price objective 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. Telsey Advisory Group lowered their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $190.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $149.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $220.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Abercrombie & Fitch has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.88.

Institutional Trading of Abercrombie & Fitch

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Abercrombie & Fitch by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,755,692 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $860,303,000 after buying an additional 53,999 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 150.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,484,643 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $221,910,000 after acquiring an additional 892,492 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 20.8% in 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 5.5% in 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 last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,037,773 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $155,116,000 after purchasing an additional 115,758 shares in the last quarter.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Up 5.6 %

Shares of ANF traded up $4.42 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $83.19. The stock had a trading volume of 3,132,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,893,326. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $98.72 and a 200 day moving average of $128.59. The company has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.23 and a beta of 1.45. Abercrombie & Fitch has a 52 week low of $73.39 and a 52 week high of $196.99.

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

Abercrombie & Fitch declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, March 5th that permits the company to buyback $1.30 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the apparel retailer to reacquire up to 29.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are 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.