FORECASTING THE FUTURE PERFORMANCE OF ABERCROMBIE & FITCH
Use online resources to work on this chapter’s questions. Please note that website information changes over time, and these changes may limit your ability to answer some of these questions.
Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch enjoyed phenomenal success in the late 1990s. Between 1996 and 2000, its sales grew almost fourfold—from $335 million to more than $1.2 billion—and its stock price soared by more than 500%. However, in 2002, its growth rate had begun to slow down, and Abercrombie had a hard time meeting its quarterly earnings targets. As a result, the stock price in late 2002 was about half of what it was 3 years earlier. Abercrombie’s struggles resulted from increased competition, a sluggish economy, and the challenges of staying ahead of the fashion curve. From late 2002 until November 2007, the company’s stock rebounded strongly; however, its stock price declined during the 2008 economic downturn. Its stock price rebounded until late October 2011, when it began a downward trend again. Questions remain about the firm’s long-term growth prospects. However the company has been cutting costs and trying to improve productivity with its focus on the supply chain. In addition, it has been actively repurchasing shares, indicating that management believes its shares are undervalued. The company continues to steadily expand stores abroad while closing under-performing domestic stores.
Given the questions about Abercrombie’s future growth rate, analysts have focused on the company’s earnings reports. Financial websites such as Yahoo! Finance, Morningstar, and MSN Money (www.msn.com/en-us/
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Based on analysts’ forecasts, what is the expected long-term (5-year) growth rate in earnings?
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Fundamentals Of Financial Management, Concise Edition (mindtap Course List)
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- The following quote appeared in an article entitled ‘Business and society in the coming decades’, which was available on the website of McKinsey & Company (accessed in October 2015).“There are compelling reasons companies should seize the initiative to drive social and business benefits. First, in an interconnected world facing unprecedented environmental and social challenges,society will demand it. Increasingly, a basic expectation among customers, governments, and communities will be that the companies they do business with provide a significant net positive return for society at large, not just for investors. This will be part of the implicit contract or license to operate”.Required:a) Explain the above statement in the context of corporate social responsibility. [Word limit 150-200words] b) Further, do you think such a statement would impact the perceived ‘legitimacy’ of companies?Explain. [Word limit 200 – 250]arrow_forwardCompanies and growth rates Future value and present value concepts are applied in various ways, such as calculating growth rates, earnings per share, expected sales and revenues in the future, and so forth. Consider the following case: Pharmacist John S. Pemberton invented a soft drink in 1886 that eventually became not only an integral part of everyday life in the United States but also a symbol of consumerism worldwide. In 1929 the first Coca-Cola vending machines were installed in Germany, and in 1930, the German branch of the Coca-Cola Co. opened in Essen. Coca-Cola sales in Germany were 243,000 cases in 1934, 1 million cases in 1936, and 4.5 million cases in 1939. Q1. Germany was a growing market for Coca-Cola, along with other countries in Europe, before World War II. With the previous data given, calculate the company’s sales growth rate for each time period in the following table: Years Growth Rate 1934–1936 ? 1936–1939 ? 1934–1939 ? During World War…arrow_forwardSee questions 1 - 3 in image Question 4: If you were in Dell Havasi's position, would you accept or reject the new product? Question 5: Would the new line increase or decrease the company's overall ROI?arrow_forward
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