Fran Horowitz's Promotion to President and CMO of Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) Puts Her One Step Closer to CEO - FBR Capital Maintains Market Perform

FBR Capital maintained a Market Perform rating on Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) following the company's announcement that A&F president, Christos Angelides, has left the company and the president of ANF's Hollister banner, Fran Horowitz, has been promoted to president and CMO. With Fran's promotion to CMO, FBR believes that this likely puts her one step closer to the CEO role. ANF has yet to find a new CEO and the thought has always been that one of the two brand presidents could eventually assume that role.

Analyst Susan Anderson commented, "Today, ANF announced that A&F president, Christos Angelides, has left the company and the president of ANF's Hollister banner, Fran Horowitz, has been promoted to president and CMO. We believe Fran's promotion reflects her success with the Hollister brand where performance improvement has exceeded the A&F brand. Additionally, we believe she has done a good job building out the Hollister team which has helped to drive its success. ANF also noted that they are on track to deliver sequential improvement in SSS (guided 4Q15 to flat) and profit expectations (flattish YOY ex-FX) for 4Q15. While we believe ANF is heading in the right direction, we believe there will still likely be pressure in the intermediate term (brand image/traffic, competition, and international margin pressure) as the company executes its turnaround. We reiterate our Market Perform rating."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Abercrombie & Fitch click here. For more ratings news on Abercrombie & Fitch click here.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch closed at $25.54 yesterday.

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