Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Sells 19,176 Shares of Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) by 79.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,820 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,176 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Macy’s were worth $97,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in Macy’s by 0.4% in the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 129,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,142,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in Macy’s by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 35,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $862,000 after buying an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Macy’s by 52.3% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,995 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Estabrook Capital Management boosted its position in Macy’s by 77.8% in the first quarter. Estabrook Capital Management now owns 1,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in Macy’s by 4.0% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 20,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on M shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Macy’s from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Macy’s in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Macy’s from $16.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Macy’s in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of Macy’s from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.45.

Macy’s Price Performance

M stock opened at $18.53 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.26. The stock has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.08 and a beta of 2.15. Macy’s, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.54 and a 1 year high of $22.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.39.

Macy’s (NYSE:M) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.47. Macy’s had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 23.34%. The firm had revenue of $8.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Macy’s, Inc. will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Macy’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.1737 per share. This is an increase from Macy’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.75%. Macy’s’s dividend payout ratio is presently 186.49%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Paul Griscom sold 2,969 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.43, for a total value of $60,656.67. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,436 shares in the company, valued at $437,937.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Antony Spring sold 13,404 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.42, for a total value of $273,709.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 223,286 shares in the company, valued at $4,559,500.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Paul Griscom sold 2,969 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.43, for a total transaction of $60,656.67. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 21,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $437,937.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 218,424 shares of company stock worth $4,405,507. Insiders own 1.52% of the company’s stock.

About Macy’s

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.