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Nomura Securities Maintains a 'Neutral' on Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF); Reducing Estimates & PT

February 3, 2012 10:34 AM EST
ANF Hot Sheet
Rating Summary:
    12 Buy, 16 Hold, 0 Sell

Rating Trend: = Flat

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 20 | Down: 11 | New: 38
Nomura Securities maintains a 'Neutral' on Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) price target slashed from $56 to $44.

Analyst, Paul Lejuez, said, "The company held onto its $4.75 F12 EPS guidance longer than we expected, but finally reduced it to $3.50-$3.75. The reduction in guidance was purely the result of flowing through a lower sales expectation (they expect flat comps, consistent with current trends vs. previous forecast of +msd). The two big questions we have are: (1) Is that conservative enough, and (2) What are the embedded EBIT margin expectations? We are reducing our F11E EPS from $2.86 to $2.30 (vs. cons $2.61) and our F12E EPS from $4.00 to $3.41 (vs. cons $3.94), primarily to reflect the 4Q earnings miss and lower comp expectations in future qtrs. We are reducing our TP to $44, which represents ~13x our revised F12 EPS of $3.41, near its historical average multiple in 2001-08, when it did not receive a premium for int’l growth, which we believe is justified again now that there is less certainty about the long-term opportunity (and sustainability) of int’l."

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 $40.40 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $40.31-$78.25.


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