Analysts Set American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) Price Target at $14.70

Shares of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the twelve brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $14.70.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Cfra Research cut American Eagle Outfitters from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of American Eagle Outfitters from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, June 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $15.00 to $11.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $18.00 to $13.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $10.00 to $9.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 12th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Eagle Outfitters

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in American Eagle Outfitters during the fourth quarter worth about $242,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of American Eagle Outfitters in the 4th quarter worth approximately $378,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 95.7% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,916 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 937 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 524,879 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $8,750,000 after acquiring an additional 10,538 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in American Eagle Outfitters by 2,239.1% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 2,573 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 2,463 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.33% of the company's stock.

American Eagle Outfitters Price Performance

NYSE AEO traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $10.06. 6,793,395 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,700,105. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.72. American Eagle Outfitters has a 1 year low of $9.45 and a 1 year high of $22.83. The company has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.51.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The apparel retailer reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by ($0.04). American Eagle Outfitters had a return on equity of 20.75% and a net margin of 4.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that American Eagle Outfitters will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Eagle Outfitters Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, July 11th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 11th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.97%. American Eagle Outfitters's dividend payout ratio is presently 51.02%.

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.