Cerity Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 947 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,056,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 4.5% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 164,688 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $4,570,000 after buying an additional 7,114 shares during the period. Cambria Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 11.1% in the first quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 261,632 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $7,260,000 after purchasing an additional 26,121 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 265.8% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 135,816 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $3,769,000 after purchasing an additional 98,687 shares during the last quarter. Saltoro Capital LP acquired a new position in Abercrombie & Fitch in the first quarter valued at $381,000. Finally, Banco Santander S.A. increased its stake in Abercrombie & Fitch by 17.8% in the first quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 23,600 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $655,000 after purchasing an additional 3,569 shares during the last quarter.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE ANF opened at $54.50 on Friday. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a 12-month low of $14.43 and a 12-month high of $54.69. The company has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.59 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $40.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.19.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 23rd. The apparel retailer reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.93. The firm had revenue of $935.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $844.07 million. Abercrombie & Fitch had a return on equity of 16.69% and a net margin of 2.85%. Abercrombie & Fitch’s quarterly revenue was up 16.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.30) EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. will post 3.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Abercrombie & Fitch news, EVP Jay Rust sold 2,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.80, for a total value of $123,543.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Abercrombie & Fitch news, EVP Jay Rust sold 2,385 shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.80, for a total transaction of $123,543.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Gregory J. Henchel sold 27,910 shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.05, for a total value of $1,424,805.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 35,931 shares in the company, valued at $1,834,277.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 562,931 shares of company stock worth $24,451,721 in the last 90 days. 3.77% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ANF. TheStreet upgraded shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Argus upgraded shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $41.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, June 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Abercrombie & Fitch from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $56.00 target price (up previously from $47.00) on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in a report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Abercrombie & Fitch from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $18.00 to $51.00 in a report on Friday, August 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.29.

Abercrombie & Fitch Company Profile

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.