COLUMBUS, United States — An investor in Abercrombie & Fitch Co on Tuesday called on the U.S. teen apparel retailer to buy back its stock, following the company's failed attempt to sell itself.

SLS Management LLC said Abercrombie was not being "aggressive enough" in efforts to turn itself around amid falling sales at most of its brands.

SLS owned 0.84 percent of Abercrombie's shares outstanding as of March 31, according to Thomson Reuters data.

New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie operates around 700 stores in the United States and nearly 200 outside the country.

SLS, in a letter to the company's board, laid out two ways for Abercrombie to buy back shares.

The retailer could buy back $200 million of stock while cutting its annual dividend to 18 cents from the current 80 cents, SLS said.

Alternatively, Abercrombie could sell its real estate assets that make up a "substantial portion" of its market value and use the proceeds from the sale to buy back shares, the investor added.

"A repurchase of almost 30 percent of Abercrombie's shares would be an important illustration of management's confidence in the turnaround and the attractiveness of the stock at current prices," SLS said.

Abercrombie last week ended talks over a potential sale, dealing another blow to the retail sector that has struggled to cope with low mall traffic and changing consumer tastes.

Retailers including Aeropostale, Wet Seal and BCBG Max Azria Group LLC have filed for bankruptcy over the past two years.

Shares of Abercrombie were up 2.3 percent at $9.49 in after-market trading. The stock had fallen nearly 23 percent this year through Tuesday.

By Aishwarya Venugopal; Editors: Sai Sachin Ravikumar.