Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M) Shares Sold by Towle & Co.

Towle & Co. trimmed its stake in Macy's, Inc. (NYSE:M - Free Report) by 44.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 577,042 shares of the company's stock after selling 460,607 shares during the quarter. Towle & Co. owned 0.21% of Macy's worth $9,769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of M. Twinbeech Capital LP purchased a new stake in Macy's in the fourth quarter worth about $5,232,000. Toronto Dominion Bank purchased a new stake in Macy's in the fourth quarter worth about $704,000. Shellback Capital LP boosted its stake in shares of Macy's by 200.0% in the fourth quarter. Shellback Capital LP now owns 300,000 shares of the company's stock worth $5,079,000 after acquiring an additional 200,000 shares during the period. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in shares of Macy's in the fourth quarter worth about $111,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Macy's by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 12,978 shares of the company's stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 924 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.36% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Macy's news, CEO Antony Spring sold 20,868 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 321,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,073,373.92. The trade was a 6.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Tracy M. Preston sold 2,780 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.68, for a total value of $35,250.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,723 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $59,887.64. The trade was a 37.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,751 shares of company stock worth $537,790 in the last ninety days. 1.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays assumed coverage on Macy's in a research note on Monday, April 28th. They set a "cautious" rating and a $12.00 price target for the company. Telsey Advisory Group reissued a "market perform" rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of Macy's in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Macy's in a research note on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Macy's from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Gordon Haskett lowered Macy's from an "accumulate" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Macy's currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $13.30.

Macy's Trading Down 2.9%

M traded down $0.34 during trading on Friday, hitting $11.58. 6,889,520 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,303,016. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.17. The firm has a market cap of $3.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.63 and a beta of 1.77. Macy's, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.76 and a 1 year high of $20.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.17 and a current ratio of 1.26.

Macy's (NYSE:M - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.25. Macy's had a return on equity of 21.99% and a net margin of 0.73%. The business had revenue of $7.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.76 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Macy's, Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Macy's Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.1824 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $0.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.30%. Macy's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.44%.

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.