Swiss National Bank Buys 6,100 Shares of Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M)

Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 545,500 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,100 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.20% of Macy’s worth $9,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Macy’s by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 80,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,364,000 after purchasing an additional 958 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Macy’s by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 41,345 shares of the company’s stock worth $700,000 after acquiring an additional 960 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Macy’s by 82.1% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,149 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 969 shares during the period. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Macy’s by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 16,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $286,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Macy’s by 19.9% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the period. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Macy’s Stock Performance

M opened at $13.27 on Friday. Macy’s, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.60 and a 52-week high of $20.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.48 and a beta of 2.07. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $14.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.32.

Macy’s (NYSE:M) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.25. Macy’s had a net margin of 0.73% and a return on equity of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $7.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.76 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Macy’s, Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Macy’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.1824 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.50%. This is an increase from Macy’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Macy’s’s dividend payout ratio is 35.44%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Macy’s from $19.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Benchmark raised shares of Macy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Macy’s in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Gordon Haskett lowered shares of Macy’s from an “accumulate” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Macy’s in a research report on Friday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.30.

About Macy’s

Macy’s, Inc engages in the retail of apparel, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, and other consumer goods. The firm’s brands include Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Bluemercury. It offers men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel, women’s accessories, intimate apparel, shoes, cosmetics, fragrances, as well as home and miscellaneous products.