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NEW YORK — Abercrombie and Fitch Co. is likely to continue to see a weakening in its sales at stores open at least a year, an analyst said Friday as she downgraded the apparel retailer.

“We believe that Abercrombie & Fitch will continue to experience deteriorating same-store sales due to problems beyond pricing and newness as Abercrombie and Fitch’s proactive promotional stance during back-to-school shopping season is not supporting improved sales productivity,” Kimberly Greenberger of Citi Investment Research wrote in a client note.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, are an important retail performance indicator because they measure growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.

The analyst anticipates that the sales misses will probably lead the New Albany, Ohio-based company to continue to lower its earnings per share forecasts.

Greenberger cut her rating on Ruehl to “Sell” from “Hold” and her share price target to $24 from $33.

Shares of Abercrombie and Fitch sank $1.31, or 4.2 percent, to $29.67 in premarket activity.