Bank of Nova Scotia Purchases Shares of 1,830 Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)

Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new position in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,830 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ANF. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Abercrombie & Fitch in the 4th quarter valued at $212,000. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 87.2% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 8,818 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,318,000 after buying an additional 4,108 shares in the last quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Abercrombie & Fitch by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Lmcg Investments LLC now owns 24,669 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $3,687,000 after buying an additional 2,479 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Abercrombie & Fitch by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 158,554 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $23,699,000 after acquiring an additional 4,837 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in Abercrombie & Fitch during the 4th quarter worth approximately $12,406,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ANF. Raymond James set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Telsey Advisory Group dropped their price target on shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from $190.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Abercrombie & Fitch from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 9th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Abercrombie & Fitch from $135.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Abercrombie & Fitch from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.29.

Abercrombie & Fitch Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch stock opened at $70.54 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $87.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $123.25. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has a fifty-two week low of $65.40 and a fifty-two week high of $196.99. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Abercrombie & Fitch declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, March 5th that authorizes the company 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 plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.