Macy’s Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:M)

Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 39,370 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 68% compared to the average volume of 23,386 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Macy’s

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Macy’s by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 16,871 shares of the company’s stock valued at $286,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229 shares in the last quarter. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Macy’s by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Macy’s by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 1,319 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Macy’s by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Jamison Private Wealth Management Inc. now owns 14,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 1,580 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on M shares. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Macy’s in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $17.00 target price on shares of Macy’s in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Argus raised shares of Macy’s to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com raised Macy’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Macy’s from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.78.

Macy’s Price Performance

Shares of NYSE M traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $15.45. 2,464,761 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,021,483. Macy’s has a twelve month low of $13.66 and a twelve month high of $22.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.17 and a current ratio of 1.26. The company has a market cap of $4.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.18 and a beta of 2.07.

Macy’s (NYSE:M) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $4.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. Macy’s had a net margin of 0.73% and a return on equity of 21.99%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Macy’s will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Macy’s Company Profile

Macy's, Inc, an omni-channel retail organization, operates stores, websites, and mobile applications in the United States. The company sells a range of merchandise, such as apparel and accessories for men, women, and kids; cosmetics; home furnishings; and other consumer goods under the Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and bluemercury brands.