Lingohr Asset Management GmbH Buys New Stake in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

Lingohr Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,338 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $362,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in the fourth quarter valued at $212,000. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,818 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 4,108 shares during the period. Lmcg Investments LLC boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 2,479 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 228.9% during the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 27,621 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $3,864,000 after buying an additional 19,222 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 3.1% during the fourth 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 during the period.

Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Up 3.3 %

NYSE:ANF opened at $82.31 on Thursday. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a twelve month low of $74.31 and a twelve month high of $196.99. The company has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.14 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $109.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $132.38.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 5th. The apparel retailer reported $3.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. Abercrombie & Fitch had a return on equity of 46.50% and a net margin of 11.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 10.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Abercrombie & Fitch announced that its board has authorized a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on ANF shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $189.00 to $168.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Telsey Advisory Group dropped their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $190.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $220.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $210.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.