Piper Jaffray Reports Tourism Remains An Issue For Abercrombie & Fitch

According to Piper Jaffray, tourism remains an issue for Abercrombie & Fitch ANF. Piper Jaffray reported that it recently visited ANF's Tokyo flagship in the Ginza district; business operations are returning to normal and the domestic customer is back in the store. “Even before the crisis, on the company's Feb. FQ4 earnings call, management said that despite Ginza's healthy volume, business was trending down and they were taking a cautious approach to the country. With two stores in Japan, we estimate ANF's exposure to be 2%-plus of total revenue. As the last week in April marks a major Japanese holiday ("Golden Week"), executives are hoping this period will mark an upturn/catalyst in business as this was the 2nd largest week LY (after the flagship's opening). While we've made quarterly EPS revisions, our FY12 and FY13 ests remain the same and we remain convinced that the int'l segment in other markets will continue to outperform.” Abercrombie & Fitch closed yesterday at $68.25.