Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) to Repurchase $1.30 billion in Outstanding Stock

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, March 5th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.30 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the apparel retailer to purchase up to 29.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on ANF shares. Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Telsey Advisory Group lowered 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $149.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group decreased their price target 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. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.75.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Performance

Shares of ANF opened at $86.16 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of 8.52 and a beta of 1.45. Abercrombie & Fitch has a fifty-two week low of $79.77 and a fifty-two week high of $196.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $137.56.

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

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.