Updating State Street Corp. and Macy's Inc.

Article Excerpt

STATE STREET CORP. $71 (www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to large institutional investors, such as mutual funds and pension plans. The company’s fee income rises and falls with the value of the securities it manages. Thanks to improving stock markets and new contracts, earnings per share rose 12.1%, to $5.09 in 2014 from $4.54 in 2013. Revenue gained 5.9%, to $10.6 billion from $10.1 billion. Buy. MACY’S INC. $65 (www.macysinc.com) is changing some procedures at its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s department stores. Previously, the physical stores and online operations bought and marketed their merchandise separately. Now the company is creating a unified purchasing organization that will cut costs, minimize product shortages and speed up online order fulfillment. Macy’s will also close 14 of its 830 stores. It plans to use some of the savings to develop new businesses, including outlets that sell discounted merchandise. Buy. Buy. …