American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $21.10.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AEO shares. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $23.00 price target on shares of American Eagle Outfitters in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on American Eagle Outfitters from $11.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Zacks Research raised American Eagle Outfitters from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley set a $23.00 price target on American Eagle Outfitters in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $22.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

American Eagle Outfitters Trading Up 15.1%

Shares of American Eagle Outfitters stock opened at $23.97 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 1.62. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $17.27 and a 200-day moving average of $14.07. American Eagle Outfitters has a 52-week low of $9.27 and a 52-week high of $24.41. The stock has a market cap of $4.06 billion, a PE ratio of 23.05 and a beta of 1.44.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, December 2nd. The apparel retailer reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.32 billion. American Eagle Outfitters had a net margin of 3.74% and a return on equity of 13.67%. The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.48 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that American Eagle Outfitters will post 1.7 EPS for the current year.

American Eagle Outfitters Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. American Eagle Outfitters’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Eagle Outfitters

In related news, Director Cary D. Mcmillan sold 9,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.11, for a total transaction of $163,026.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David M. Sable sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.22, for a total value of $96,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 48,640 shares in the company, valued at $934,860.80. This trade represents a 9.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 138,766 shares of company stock valued at $2,515,354. 8.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 920.6% during the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 5,497,720 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $94,066,000 after purchasing an additional 4,959,039 shares during the last quarter. Junto Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of American Eagle Outfitters during the first quarter worth $38,588,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters during the first quarter worth $18,140,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters in the 3rd quarter valued at $23,395,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 37.7% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,455,961 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $40,158,000 after acquiring an additional 946,904 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.33% of the company’s stock.

About American Eagle Outfitters

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc operates as a multi-brand specialty retailer in the United States and internationally. The company provides jeans, apparel and accessories, and personal care products for women and men under the American Eagle brand; and intimates, apparel, activewear, and swim collections under the Aerie and OFFLINE by Aerie brands.