DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Acquires Shares of 1,823 American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,823 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $38,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 4.3% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 29,721,106 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $350,709,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,617 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,453,599 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $339,734,000 after acquiring an additional 60,418 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 7.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,243,454 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $85,473,000 after acquiring an additional 488,571 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 37.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,092,955 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $128,927,000 after acquiring an additional 1,663,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 1.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,924,912 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $99,543,000 after acquiring an additional 72,940 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Cary D. Mcmillan sold 1,908 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.59, for a total value of $46,917.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Cary D. Mcmillan sold 1,908 shares of American Eagle Outfitters stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.59, for a total transaction of $46,917.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO James H. Keefer, Jr. sold 7,000 shares of American Eagle Outfitters stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.82, for a total value of $180,740.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,266 shares in the company, valued at $445,808.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 96,590 shares of company stock valued at $2,221,028. 7.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered American Eagle Outfitters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on American Eagle Outfitters from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of American Eagle Outfitters from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.27.

American Eagle Outfitters Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AEO opened at $22.37 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.59. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $23.61 and its 200-day moving average is $20.76. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.95 and a 52-week high of $26.44.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The apparel retailer reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. American Eagle Outfitters had a return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 3.23%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

American Eagle Outfitters announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, February 1st that permits the company to buyback 30,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the apparel retailer to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

American Eagle Outfitters Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 11th. American Eagle Outfitters’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.14%.

American Eagle Outfitters Company Profile

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc operates as a multi-brand specialty retailer in the United States and internationally. The company provides jeans, apparel and accessories, and personal care products for women and men under the American Eagle brand; and intimates, apparel, activewear, and swim collections under the Aerie and OFFLINE by Aerie brands.