When Should You Buy Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF)?

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF), which is in the specialty retail business, and is based in United States, received a lot of attention from a substantial price increase on the NYSE over the last few months. With many analysts covering the stock, we may expect any price-sensitive announcements have already been factored into the stock’s share price. However, what if the stock is still a bargain? Let’s examine Abercrombie & Fitch’s valuation and outlook in more detail to determine if there’s still a bargain opportunity.

View our latest analysis for Abercrombie & Fitch

Is Abercrombie & Fitch still cheap?

The stock seems fairly valued at the moment according to my relative valuation model. In this instance, I’ve used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stock’s cash flows. I find that Abercrombie & Fitch’s ratio of 16.83x is trading slightly above its industry peers’ ratio of 16.31x, which means if you buy Abercrombie & Fitch today, you’d be paying a relatively reasonable price for it. And if you believe Abercrombie & Fitch should be trading in this range, then there isn’t really any room for the share price grow beyond what it’s currently trading. Furthermore, it seems like Abercrombie & Fitch’s share price is quite stable, which means there may be less chances to buy low in the future now that it’s fairly valued. This is because the stock is less volatile than the wider market given its low beta.

What does the future of Abercrombie & Fitch look like?

Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by a double-digit 15% in the upcoming year, the short-term outlook is positive for Abercrombie & Fitch. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? ANF’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at ANF? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the true value?

Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping an eye on ANF, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for ANF, which means it’s worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on Abercrombie & Fitch. You can find everything you need to know about Abercrombie & Fitch in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Abercrombie & Fitch, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.