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Bear Of The Day: Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF)

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Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF - Free Report) is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) despite the fact that the company beat last quarter, the company is reporting before the bell today. This article was published before the company posted the latest results. The retail sector has been plagued by the tariff tantrum that the market is facing.  This article will look at why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) as it is the Bear of the Day.

Description                       

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. The APAC segment includes operations in the Asia-Pacific region, including Asia and Oceania. The company was founded by David Abercrombie in 1892 and is headquartered in New Albany, OH.

Earnings History

When I look at a stock, the first thing I do is look to see if the company is beating the number.  This tells me right away where the market’s expectations have been for the company and how management has communicated to the market.  A stock that consistently beats has management communicating expectations to Wall Street that can be achieved.  That is what you want to see.

In the case of Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF - Free Report) I see the company has beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters.  This alone does not make the stock a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and it doesn’t make it a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) either.

The Zacks Rank does care about the earnings history, but it is much more heavily influenced by the movement of earnings estimates.

Earnings Estimates

The Zacks Rank tells us which stocks are seeing earnings estimates move higher or in this case lower.  For Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF - Free Report) I see annual estimates moving lower of late.

The current fiscal year consensus number moved lower from $11.06 to $10.64 over the last 60 days. 

The next year has moved from $11.68 to $11.08 over the last 60 days.

Negative movement in earnings estimates like that is why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

It should be noted that a lot of stocks in the Zacks universe are seeing negative earnings estimate revisions.  That means that the stocks that are seeing small but negative earnings estimate revisions are falling to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).


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