Cooke & Bieler LP Cuts Stock Position in American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO)

Cooke & Bieler LP trimmed its position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO - Free Report) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,853,930 shares of the apparel retailer's stock after selling 102,520 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP owned about 3.47% of American Eagle Outfitters worth $145,029,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AEO. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 119,073.0% during the first quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,752,896 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $36,999,000 after buying an additional 2,750,586 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 15.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,571,205 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $170,967,000 after buying an additional 2,369,726 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 135.2% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,981,091 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $50,083,000 after buying an additional 1,713,420 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of American Eagle Outfitters by 37.6% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,092,955 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $128,927,000 after buying an additional 1,663,569 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in American Eagle Outfitters in the first quarter worth about $22,096,000. 97.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AEO. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of American Eagle Outfitters from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of American Eagle Outfitters from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $31.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of American Eagle Outfitters from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $21.27.

Insider Activity at American Eagle Outfitters

In related news, CAO James H. Keefer, Jr. sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.82, for a total transaction of $180,740.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,266 shares in the company, valued at $445,808.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other American Eagle Outfitters news, CAO James H. Keefer, Jr. sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.82, for a total value of $180,740.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,266 shares in the company, valued at $445,808.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer M. Foyle sold 26,440 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.66, for a total transaction of $652,010.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 226,497 shares in the company, valued at $5,585,416.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 72,319 shares of company stock worth $1,732,938 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 7.50% of the company's stock.

American Eagle Outfitters Price Performance

American Eagle Outfitters stock traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $22.38. 3,031,493 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,335,757. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.59. The business has a 50 day moving average of $23.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.87. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. has a 12 month low of $9.95 and a 12 month high of $26.44.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 7th. The apparel retailer reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. American Eagle Outfitters had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 17.76%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

American Eagle Outfitters Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Friday, April 12th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 11th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. American Eagle Outfitters's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.14%.

American Eagle Outfitters declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, February 1st that authorizes the company to buyback 30,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the apparel retailer to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.