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Macy's (M) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Macy's (M - Free Report) closed at $16.22, marking a -0.18% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.96%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.57%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 3.03%.

Coming into today, shares of the department store operator had lost 6.12% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 3.58%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.19%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Macy's as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Macy's is projected to report earnings of $0.46 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 57.41%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.12 billion, down 4.26% from the year-ago period.

M's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.79 per share and revenue of $24.14 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -15.4% and -1.24%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Macy's should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Macy's is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Macy's has a Forward P/E ratio of 4.28 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.9.

It is also worth noting that M currently has a PEG ratio of 0.36. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Regional Department Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.76 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Regional Department Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 112, putting it in the top 45% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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