Fickle shoppers remain a major risk factor

Article Excerpt

These traditional brick-and-mortar retailers continue to revamp their stores and improve their loyalty plans in response to rising competition from online sellers. Falling U.S. unemployment should also boost customer traffic. However, their shares will likely remain volatile, particularly if their sales fail to meet investor expectations. MACY’S INC. $36 (New York symbol M, Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 307.0 million; Market cap: $11.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.macysinc.com) operates 690 Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s department stores. It also has over 170 speciality outlets in addition to selling goods online. Macy’s continues to make progress with a new plan to improve its profitability. That includes closing underperforming stores and opening more of its Backstage discount outlets. The company also continues to enhance its private-label brands and online operations. If you exclude all unusual items, Macy’s overall earnings jumped 62.3%, to $185 million for its fiscal 2019 second quarter, ended August 4, 2018. The company earned $114 million a year…