Swiss National Bank Buys 700 Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 100,500 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch were worth $15,022,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Abercrombie & Fitch during the 4th quarter worth $212,000. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,818 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,318,000 after purchasing an additional 4,108 shares in the last quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC now owns 24,669 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $3,687,000 after purchasing an additional 2,479 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 228.9% in the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 27,621 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $3,864,000 after buying an additional 19,222 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 158,554 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $23,699,000 after buying an additional 4,837 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ANF shares. UBS Group reduced their target price 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. StockNews.com downgraded Abercrombie & Fitch from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $149.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.88.

Abercrombie & Fitch Price Performance

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock opened at $82.31 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.14 and a beta of 1.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $109.17 and its 200 day moving average is $132.38. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a one year low of $74.31 and a one year high of $196.99.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.97 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 10.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abercrombie & Fitch announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, March 5th that permits the company to repurchase $1.30 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the apparel retailer to repurchase up to 29.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.