Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) Short Interest Update

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of 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. Approximately 8.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,360,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Abercrombie & Fitch

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANF. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 415 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Virtue Capital Management LLC now owns 8,221 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch by 92.2% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 223 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 5,460 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $816,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 14,831 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $2,217,000 after buying an additional 115 shares in the last quarter.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Up 3.0 %

NYSE ANF traded up $2.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $78.67. The company had a trading volume of 2,067,204 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,888,710. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $99.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.04. Abercrombie & Fitch has a fifty-two week low of $73.39 and a fifty-two week high of $196.99. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.78 and a beta of 1.45.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The apparel retailer reported $3.57 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Abercrombie & Fitch will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Abercrombie & Fitch announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, March 5th that allows the company to buyback $1.30 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the apparel retailer to reacquire up to 29.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANF has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Abercrombie & Fitch from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $220.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Raymond James set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $149.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $189.00 to $168.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.88.

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.