Bessemer Group Inc. Grows Stake in Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M)

Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) by 495.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,412 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,839 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Macy’s were worth $58,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Macy’s by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,503,742 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,038,000 after purchasing an additional 2,812,151 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Macy’s by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,137,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,832,000 after purchasing an additional 774,693 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Macy’s in the 4th quarter worth approximately $96,689,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Macy’s by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,059,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,143,000 after buying an additional 35,935 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in Macy’s by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 3,512,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,461,000 after buying an additional 411,412 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Macy’s

In other Macy’s news, CEO Antony Spring sold 20,868 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.68, for a total transaction of $264,606.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 321,244 shares in the company, valued at $4,073,373.92. This represents a 6.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Adrian V. Mitchell sold 3,489 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.74, for a total value of $47,938.86. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 116,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,596,107.10. The trade was a 2.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,751 shares of company stock valued at $537,790. 2.77% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

M has been the topic of several recent research reports. Benchmark upgraded shares of Macy’s to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Macy’s from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Macy’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Macy’s from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Macy’s from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.90.

Macy’s Stock Performance

M opened at $11.13 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.86 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a fifty day moving average of $13.26 and a 200 day moving average of $14.87. Macy’s, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $9.76 and a fifty-two week high of $20.70.

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

Macy’s Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.1824 per share. This is an increase from Macy’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.73 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Macy’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.44%.

Macy’s Profile

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.