Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Macy’s Call Options (NYSE:M)

Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 29,879 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 70% compared to the typical volume of 17,585 call options.

Institutional Trading of Macy’s

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Macy’s by 1,539.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 3,534,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,871,000 after buying an additional 3,319,337 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Macy’s by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,489,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $297,385,000 after acquiring an additional 1,379,476 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Macy’s by 18.9% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,704,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,333,000 after acquiring an additional 747,542 shares in the last quarter. Beryl Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Macy’s in the 1st quarter worth approximately $7,015,000. Finally, Alden Global Capital LLC increased its stake in Macy’s by 56.1% in the 2nd quarter. Alden Global Capital LLC now owns 606,741 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,649,000 after purchasing an additional 218,146 shares in the last quarter. 87.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

M has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Macy’s in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Macy’s in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Macy’s from $22.00 to $17.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Macy’s from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Argus raised Macy’s to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.43.

Macy’s Price Performance

Macy’s stock opened at $16.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.48. Macy’s has a 12 month low of $10.59 and a 12 month high of $22.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.50 billion, a PE ratio of 543.00 and a beta of 2.11.

Macy’s (NYSE:M) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 21st. The company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.23. Macy’s had a net margin of 0.80% and a return on equity of 23.14%. The company had revenue of $4.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. Macy’s’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Macy’s will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Macy’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.1737 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. Macy’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2,300.00%.

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.