Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF)

Its not in for guys to look gay anymore

This teen retailer has not squared prices with the "new normal"

ANF is overpriced, and their stuff is out of style now. They have not changed anything for a long time.

This stock currently represents a prime example of investors overestimating the speed of recovery.

This runaway optimism in retail is unwarranted. Shorting the "hot" clothing retailers.

We might soon find out that although beating diminished estimates, ANF's just reported declining revenues for September might be even worse than they seem, If we find in a few weeks that they've propped up revs with discounts, margins and earnings could be hit hard n this quarter. With a current PE of over 66 and the risk of a hhit to earnings, I think ANF might dramatically underperform in the next 3 - 5 months.

Lametown

i don't have the balls to short them in the "real world," so i'm going to live out my fantasies and do it here on caps. down to the depths of hell with abercrombie and fitch.

Business model is not keeping up with the economic realities of this recession.

Getting close to confirming a rough double top...and the current AND forward P/E are totally bananas. ANF is a 90s relic in the mall...the stock has seen its peak...growth will never be the same again for this business. A short-term underperformer for sure.

There are more desireable retailers other than ANF. consumers are cutting back and don't have the desire they once had to bu luxury products. People looking for a new wardrobe are most likely to flock to stores that have 20%-50% sales going on frequently.

The brand is pathetic.
The payout ratio is 138% and the p/e is about 60 making it unreasonable.

This is a fashionable stock. It has suffered a bit but a birdie tells me that its the end of the fashion has not yet come about.

I think there is too much optimism that this company can adequately compete with its rivals. it made some poor decision earlier, which it has started to correct, but it has lost some of its customer base during that time. If (when) unemployment goes higher, their customers will prefer their rivals even more. Abercrombie's name will be equated to "fool", and not in a good way. As in you "fool" paid too much for that stuff, I hope those extra letters or your shirt are worth it.
Buying fashion for less may be a coming style in this next year.

>60 P/E really? For what a company that has chosen brand protection over sales and profits? I think that A & F is a good company and the stock in the long-term should outperform the market, but it is way overpriced in this economic climate for the route that is chose to take. This company is obviously ran by management who were ill prepared for economic downturns, and it's loss of sales reflect poor decisions. There may be dividends for brand protection at some unforeseeable point in the future, but in the near term this company can not sustain this astronomically high price. In a 5 - 10% correction this stock will lose 20%+ of it's share price.

a lot of young people like it and also older people

Now that things are turning back up, it will interesting to see what happens here

Has run up way too much with many of the retails, but they kept going the last few days even as the signs the US consumer wasn't buying with lower consumer conf then expected and lower July retail purchases. They beat analysts expectations with the 2q earnings but they sell high priced clothing and apparal and in this environment with the consumer finally cutting back big time they can't keep up. Either sales or margins will drop form here out and either way earnings won't meet their expectations and certainly not the mkts with the px it has taken the stock to...

If you want to make money on this stock short it. This company is a dead man walking in my opinion.

Consumer is retrenching and will remain thriftier going forward. Plenty of cheaper alternatives, both stocks and clothes.