Macerich Company (The) (NYSE:MAC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Macerich Company (The) (NYSE:MAC) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $25.1429.

MAC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Macerich from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Macerich from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Macerich from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Macerich from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Compass Point reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $26.00 price objective (up from $23.00) on shares of Macerich in a research note on Friday, June 26th.

Macerich Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MAC opened at $25.92 on Monday. Macerich has a twelve month low of $15.94 and a twelve month high of $26.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a market capitalization of $7.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 2.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.07.

Macerich (NYSE:MAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. Macerich had a negative return on equity of 6.95% and a negative net margin of 18.22%.The business had revenue of $241.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $233.06 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Macerich will post 1.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Macerich Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Macerich’s dividend payout ratio is -95.77%.

Institutional Trading of Macerich

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Triad Investment Management bought a new stake in Macerich in the fourth quarter valued at $3,820,000. Centersquare Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Macerich by 149.6% during the fourth quarter. Centersquare Investment Management LLC now owns 6,354,661 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $117,307,000 after acquiring an additional 3,808,336 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Macerich during the fourth quarter worth about $66,924,000. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Macerich in the 4th quarter worth about $557,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Macerich by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,795,267 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,141,000 after acquiring an additional 160,748 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.38% of the company’s stock.

Macerich Company Profile

The Macerich Company (NYSE: MAC) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in the acquisition, development, ownership and management of regional shopping centers in the United States. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, the company focuses on high-quality retail properties, including enclosed malls, open-air centers and mixed-use lifestyle destinations. Since its establishment as a REIT in 1994, Macerich has pursued a disciplined strategy of investing in properties that serve strong consumer demographics and offer long-term growth potential.

Macerich’s core activities encompass property and asset management, leasing, marketing and redevelopment services.