WINTON GROUP Ltd Buys 2,756 Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its position in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) by 17.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,701 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,756 shares during the quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch were worth $2,795,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch during the fourth quarter valued at $212,000. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in Abercrombie & Fitch by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,818 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,318,000 after acquiring an additional 4,108 shares during the period. Lmcg Investments LLC grew its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC now owns 24,669 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $3,687,000 after purchasing an additional 2,479 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 158,554 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $23,699,000 after purchasing an additional 4,837 shares during the period. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in the fourth quarter worth about $12,406,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ANF shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $189.00 to $168.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. StockNews.com lowered Abercrombie & Fitch from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 9th. Raymond James set a $110.00 price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in a report 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 for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $140.88.

Abercrombie & Fitch Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ANF opened at $77.64 on Friday. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a 1 year low of $74.31 and a 1 year high of $196.99. The company has a market capitalization of $3.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.68 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $129.88.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The apparel retailer reported $3.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.97 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 10.62 EPS for the current year.

Abercrombie & Fitch declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, March 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.30 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the apparel retailer to reacquire up to 29.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Abercrombie & Fitch 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.