Analyst Downgrades: Abercrombie & Fitch Co., AT&T Inc., and salesforce.com, inc.

Analysts downwardly revised their ratings and price targets on Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), AT&T Inc. (T), and salesforce.com, inc. (CRM)

Josh Selway

Nov 14, 2016 at 9:54 AM

Analysts are weighing in on retail stock Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF), telecom titan AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), and cloud concern salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on ANF, T, and CRM.

Despite upgrading its rating on the specialty softlines/apparel sector to "market overweight," Wolfe Research lowered its opinion of ANF to "peer perform." It's not as though the stock doesn't deserve the bearish brokerage attention, sitting on a 37% year-to-date loss, and fresh off last week's 16-year low of $14. At last check, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. was shaking off the pessimistic note, however, up 3.9% at $16.92. Amid the stock's technical trials, options traders have been upping the bearish ante. ANF currently sports a 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 1.97 -- outstripping four-fifths of comparable readings from the past year.

T is down 0.7% this morning at $36.25, following a price-target cut to $41 from $45 at Deutsche Bank. The stock has taken a tumble since its 14-year high of $43.89 back in July, and short-term options traders have taken a decidedly put-skewed approach. Specifically, AT&T Inc.'s Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 2.14 reveals put open interest more than doubles call open interest among options expiring within three months. Plus, this SOIR ranks in the high 88th annual percentile, meaning this heavy of a put-skew is rather unusual.

CRM is slipping on a price-target cut this morning, with Cowen and Company dropping its target to $95 from $100. At last check, salesforce.com, inc. was down 0.4% at $74.30, putting the shares just below their year-over-year breakeven mark of $76.26, which also corresponds with their 100-day moving average. Options traders are likely rooting on these levels to act as resistance. By the numbers, CRM's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX comes in at 2.39, which represents an annual high.

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