In the latest close session, Macy's (M) was down 2.18% at $13.02. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.13%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.39%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.15%.
Coming into today, shares of the department store operator had gained 7.95% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 2.23%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.39%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Macy's in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.18, down 66.04% from the prior-year quarter. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $4.74 billion, showing a 4.03% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $1.78 per share and a revenue of $21.28 billion, indicating changes of -32.58% and -4.55%, respectively, from the former year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Macy's. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Macy's is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
In terms of valuation, Macy's is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.46. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.2, so one might conclude that Macy's is trading at a discount comparatively.
The Retail - Regional Department Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 196, this industry ranks in the bottom 21% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
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Macy's, Inc. (M): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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