Norges Bank Purchases New Shares in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 591,946 shares of the apparel retailer's stock, valued at approximately $88,478,000. Norges Bank owned about 1.18% of Abercrombie & Fitch as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ANF. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $220.00 to $170.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $210.00 to $150.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $189.00 to $168.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut Abercrombie & Fitch from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday, March 9th. Finally, Raymond James set a $110.00 target price on Abercrombie & Fitch in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $140.88.

Remove Ads

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Performance

NYSE ANF traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $72.58. The company had a trading volume of 4,276,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,933,878. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $126.87. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a 52 week low of $65.57 and a 52 week high of $196.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.18 and a beta of 1.41.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 5th. The apparel retailer reported $3.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.48 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.57 billion. Abercrombie & Fitch had a net margin of 11.16% and a return on equity of 46.50%. Abercrombie & Fitch's revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 10.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Abercrombie & Fitch announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 plans are usually an indication that the company's board 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.