A New High for Macy's Shares
The momentum gathered from the better-than-expected fourth-quarter fiscal 2012 results facilitated the shares of Macy’s Inc. (M) to craft a new 52-week high for the second consecutive week. After attaining a high of $42.47 on Wednesday, Mar 13, shares of Macy’s further soared to touch a new high of $42.78 yesterday.
This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) department store retailer eventually closed at $42.55, recording a healthy year-to-date return of roughly 11.6%. The company currently trades at a forward P/E of 10.85x, a 4.6% discount to the peer group average of 11.37x.
Macy’s has been consistently exhibiting a fair performance. The company has been taking prudent steps to augment sales, profitability and cash flows. These include integration of operations, consolidation of divisions and customer-centric localization initiatives. To help drive traffic, Macy’s continues to focus on price optimization, inventory management and merchandise planning.
The company posted stronger-than-anticipated fourth-quarter fiscal 2012 results, on the back of My Macy's localization initiatives, omnichannel integration, robust online sales, and effective cost management. It declared impressive results on Feb 26, 2013, wherein earnings of $2.05 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.98 by 3.5%. Macy’s has outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 11 straight quarters by an average of 38.5%.
Macy’s total sales grew 7.2% to $9,350 million in the quarter from $8,724 million in the year-ago period, and came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $9,327 million. Comparable-store sales for the quarter climbed 3.9%.
Buoyed by healthy results, management now projects fiscal 2013 earnings between $3.90 and $3.95.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2013 rose 2.6% to $3.92 per share over the last 30 days. For fiscal 2014, the Zacks Consensus Estimate advanced 1.4% over the same timeframe to $4.40 per share.
Alongside, companies like Gannett Company, Inc. (GCI), Target Corporation (TGT) and The Kroger Company (KR) attained new 52-week highs on Wednesday.
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