Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) Short Interest Update

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,390,000 shares, a growth of 21.9% from the August 15th total of 5,240,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,870,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 13.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Abercrombie & Fitch news, Director Kenneth B. Robinson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.84, for a total transaction of $103,680.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $475,891.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Abercrombie & Fitch news, Director Kenneth B. Robinson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.84, for a total transaction of $103,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $475,891.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gregory J. Henchel sold 27,910 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.05, for a total transaction of $1,424,805.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 35,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,834,277.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 562,931 shares of company stock worth $24,451,721 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.77% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Abercrombie & Fitch

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,299,726 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $230,317,000 after buying an additional 177,790 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,386,731 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $127,613,000 after purchasing an additional 114,744 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,121,400 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $58,869,000 after buying an additional 44,221 shares during the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its position in Abercrombie & Fitch by 172.1% during the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 1,843,459 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $42,234,000 after buying an additional 1,165,872 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Abercrombie & Fitch by 48.4% during the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 1,811,477 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $28,168,000 after buying an additional 590,747 shares during the last quarter.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock traded down $1.51 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $50.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,631,687 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,798,181. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.89 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.03. Abercrombie & Fitch has a one year low of $14.43 and a one year high of $55.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 23rd. The apparel retailer reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.93. The business had revenue of $935.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $844.07 million. Abercrombie & Fitch had a net margin of 2.85% and a return on equity of 16.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.30) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Abercrombie & Fitch will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ANF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Abercrombie & Fitch from $42.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $33.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 15th. Argus upgraded shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $41.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 12th. Telsey Advisory Group raised their price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 7th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.14.

About Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch Co, through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Hollister and Abercrombie. It offers an assortment of apparel, personal care products, and accessories for men, women, and kids under the Hollister, Gilly Hicks, Social Tourist, Abercrombie & Fitch, and abercrombie kids brands.