Macy’s, Inc. stock (NYSE: M) slid on Monday, December 22, 2025, with shares down about 4% and trading around the $22.8 level after opening near $23.84 and dipping to the $22.76 area during the session. [1]
The move comes as Wall Street continues to weigh two competing narratives around Macy’s stock: a real turnaround showing up in comparable sales and operating discipline, and a still-cautious near-term outlook shaped by a promotional holiday quarter, tariff-related cost pressure, and a retail consumer split where higher-income shoppers are holding up better than “aspirational” customers.
Below is what’s driving Macy’s stock today, the most relevant recent news and analysis, and the forward-looking forecast signals investors are using to frame Macy’s into 2026.
Why Macy’s stock is down today
One clear, immediate headline catalyst: a widely circulated rating change.
MarketBeat reported that Wall Street Zen downgraded Macy’s from “strong-buy” to “buy,” and that the stock traded lower following the change. [2]
In a vacuum, that kind of downgrade is rarely “fundamental news.” But in a stock that has already had a strong run in 2025 and is trading not far from its 52-week high, even incremental shifts in sentiment can trigger profit-taking—especially in a holiday week where liquidity can thin out and price swings can look bigger than the news deserves. (On Investing.com’s tape, Macy’s 52-week range is shown as $9.76 to $24.41.) [3]
The bigger story: Macy’s 2025 rebound is real—but the market still wants proof it can last
Macy’s stock performance this year has been strong enough that critics have had to update their scripts.
- Investing.com lists Macy’s one-year change at roughly +37%. [4]
- The Motley Fool calculated that Macy’s share price gained 36.3% through Dec. 16, and estimated the stock’s total return (including dividends) at 43.3% over that span. [5]
That rebound didn’t come from hype. It has been anchored in a mix of:
- improved execution at key stores,
- a clearer strategy under CEO Tony Spring,
- and tangible results from a multi-year turnaround plan.
Reuters has described Macy’s efforts as increasingly focused on attracting wealthier shoppers and leaning into more premium labels—part of a broader plan that also includes closing 150 underperforming stores by 2026 while investing in stronger locations. [6]
The stock, in other words, has been re-rated upward because investors started to believe Macy’s could be something other than a slow-motion department store obituary.
But “could” is doing a lot of work. That’s why the next sections matter.
Macy’s latest earnings and guidance: Q3 beat and a raise… plus a cautious holiday-quarter view
The most important fundamental anchor for Macy’s stock right now remains its third-quarter 2025 results (reported Dec. 3, 2025) and what management said about the holiday quarter.
What Macy’s reported
In its Q3 release, Macy’s posted:
- Net sales of $4.7 billion (quarter ended Nov. 1, 2025) [7]
- Adjusted EPS of $0.09 (up from $0.04 a year earlier, per the company) [8]
- Comparable sales up 3.2% across its “go-forward” business on an owned-plus-licensed-plus-marketplace basis [9]
Reuters also highlighted the same quarter as a clear beat versus expectations: $4.7B sales vs. ~$4.52B expected, and $0.09 EPS vs. a loss expected. [10]
The guidance raise—and why the stock didn’t simply rip higher
Macy’s raised full-year targets, including adjusted EPS guidance of $2.00–$2.20 and net sales guidance of $21.475B–$21.625B. [11]
Yet investors latched onto one caution flag: Macy’s fourth-quarter adjusted EPS outlook (the core holiday quarter) came in below what analysts were looking for at the time, according to Reuters. [12]
That combination—raising the year, but guiding conservatively for the quarter that matters most—is exactly the kind of nuance that keeps a stock from getting a clean “story premium.”
Where the turnaround is showing up: Reimagine stores, luxury strength, and “watch Chicago”
Macy’s isn’t a single business anymore so much as a bundle of different engines:
- the core Macy’s nameplate,
- Bloomingdale’s,
- and Bluemercury.
In Q3, Macy’s reported:
- Macy’s owned comparable sales up 2.5% [13]
- Bloomingdale’s comparable sales up 8.8% [14]
- Bluemercury comparable sales up 1.1% [15]
That Bloomingdale’s number is the kind of data point Wall Street loves, because it reinforces the “premium customer” thesis.
Retail Dive’s on-the-ground signal: the Chicago flagship as a bellwether
A notable piece of operational analysis came from Retail Dive on Dec. 18, 2025, summarizing an Evercore ISI note after a tour of Macy’s State Street flagship in Chicago.
Evercore’s analysts said merchandising and customer service there were the best they’d seen in 15 years, with better brand mix, improved presentation, and more trained associates—suggesting the strategy is translating into store-level reality, not just earnings-call rhetoric. [16]
Retail Dive also noted that Evercore flagged a new North Carolina distribution center as a holiday-season advantage that helped support later e-commerce deadlines. [17]
For investors, this is the “micro” version of the turnaround thesis: fix the experience, improve conversion, win back brands, repeat.
Beauty is now a front line: Macy’s fights TikTok, Amazon, Sephora—and changing shopper behavior
On December 22, 2025, an Associated Press-reported piece (carried by the Los Angeles Times) put a spotlight on a problem and an opportunity: department stores are no longer the default destination for beauty discovery, especially as social media and e-commerce reshape how consumers shop.
The article notes that Macy’s has renovated the beauty floor at its Herald Square flagship with more space, ultra-luxury brands, and interactive tech—and that Macy’s expects to redesign beauty departments in 40 more stores. [18]
The piece also connects these upgrades to CEO Tony Spring’s broader focus on higher-spending customers and Macy’s ownership of Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury as key growth levers. [19]
For Macy’s stock, beauty matters for a simple reason: it’s one of the categories where traffic, loyalty, and margin can be structurally better than the department store average—if Macy’s can make the shopping experience feel modern rather than museum-like.
Macy’s stock forecasts and Wall Street targets: bullish revisions, but a “mixed” consensus
Investors looking for a single clean “Macy’s stock forecast” number won’t get it—because the Street is split, and data providers don’t all track the same analyst universe.
Reuters “Street View” snapshot: median price target around $22 (as of early Dec.)
A Reuters “Street View” item published Dec. 3, 2025 (via TradingView) said at least four brokerages raised price targets after Macy’s lifted annual targets, and that the median price target of 13 brokerages was $22, based on LSEG-compiled data. [20]
That same Reuters snapshot cited:
- Jefferies with a Buy rating and price target $26
- Telsey with a Market Perform and price target $25
- TD Cowen with a Hold and price target $21 [21]
MarketBeat consensus: “Hold”-leaning with a lower average target
MarketBeat’s Dec. 22 note described a broader analyst mix as “lukewarm,” citing an average price target around $20.50 with many Holds and some Sells in the mix. [22]
Zacks view today: value + income screens see Macy’s as cheap, with rising estimates
Two Zacks screen-based notes published early Dec. 22 (carried on Nasdaq.com) placed Macy’s on both a “value” and an “income” list:
- Value screen: Zacks cited Macy’s P/E of 11.02 versus 22.90 for the industry and a Value Score of A, alongside a Zacks Rank #1. [23]
- Income screen: Zacks cited a dividend yield of ~3.1% and said the Zacks consensus estimate for current-year earnings increased 10.2% over the last 60 days. [24]
Translation: even after the run, some quantitative models still view Macy’s stock as “cheap,” largely because earnings expectations have been moving higher.
Dividend and buybacks: Macy’s keeps paying while the story plays out
For long-term investors, Macy’s capital return policy is part of the stock’s appeal—especially when retail uncertainty makes “getting paid to wait” feel rational.
In its Dec. 3 earnings release, Macy’s said it declared a quarterly dividend of $0.1824 per share, payable January 2, 2026 to shareholders of record December 15, 2025. [25]
The company also reported returning $99 million to shareholders in the quarter via $49 million in dividends and $50 million in share repurchases, and noted about $1.2 billion remained under its repurchase authorization. [26]
Insider activity: a recent Form 4 sale investors noticed
Insider selling isn’t automatically bearish—executives sell for many reasons. But it’s part of the “tape” investors monitor when a stock is near highs.
A Form 4 filed with the SEC shows Macy’s EVP and Chief HR Officer Danielle L. Kirgan sold 85,000 shares on Dec. 11, 2025 at a weighted average price of $23.9176, and reported holding 51,161 shares afterward. [27]
What to watch next for Macy’s stock: the catalysts and the risks
Macy’s stock in late December 2025 is sitting in a classic “prove-it” zone: investors have rewarded the turnaround, but they want confirmation the gains aren’t a one-season wonder.
Key near-term catalysts
- Holiday-quarter performance and margins: Macy’s own guidance has implied caution for Q4 profitability even while the full-year picture improved. [28]
- Q4 earnings date: third-party calendars generally point to early March 2026 for the next report (exact dates vary by source). [29]
- Store execution signals: analysis like Evercore’s Chicago tour matters because it gives investors “boots-on-the-ground” confirmation that merchandising and service changes are real. [30]
- Beauty initiatives: Macy’s push to upgrade beauty floors across more stores is a measurable bet; investors will watch whether it lifts traffic and conversion. [31]
Risks still hanging over the story
- Consumer bifurcation: Macy’s is benefiting from middle-to-upper income spending resilience, but management commentary has repeatedly suggested uncertainty around whether “aspirational” shoppers will keep pace. [32]
- Tariff pressure and pricing strategy: Reuters reporting earlier in the turnaround pointed to tariff impacts as a margin headwind and a key variable in 2025’s outlook. [33]
- Promotional intensity: department stores can win sales with discounts, but that can be poison for margins if the industry turns into a coupon war.
The bottom line on Macy’s stock on Dec. 22, 2025
Macy’s shares are lower today amid a sentiment hit from a downgrade and what looks like routine volatility near highs. [34] But the bigger narrative remains intact: Macy’s has produced credible operating improvements, posted a meaningful comp-sales acceleration, and lifted its full-year outlook—while still warning that the holiday quarter demands caution. [35]
The Street’s forecasts reflect that tension. Price targets cluster from the low 20s into the mid-20s depending on who you ask and when they updated, while quantitative screens keep highlighting Macy’s low P/E and dividend yield. [36]
In the strange ecology of retail stocks, Macy’s is currently living in a narrow corridor between “turnaround success story” and “one good year isn’t a business model.” The next few quarters—especially Q4 results and early-2026 guidance—are where that corridor either widens into a road… or turns back into a hallway.
References
1. www.investing.com, 2. www.marketbeat.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.investing.com, 5. www.fool.com, 6. www.reuters.com, 7. www.macysinc.com, 8. www.macysinc.com, 9. www.macysinc.com, 10. www.reuters.com, 11. www.macysinc.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.macysinc.com, 14. www.macysinc.com, 15. www.macysinc.com, 16. www.retaildive.com, 17. www.retaildive.com, 18. www.latimes.com, 19. www.latimes.com, 20. www.tradingview.com, 21. www.tradingview.com, 22. www.marketbeat.com, 23. www.nasdaq.com, 24. www.nasdaq.com, 25. www.macysinc.com, 26. www.macysinc.com, 27. www.sec.gov, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. www.investing.com, 30. www.retaildive.com, 31. www.latimes.com, 32. www.investopedia.com, 33. www.reuters.com, 34. www.marketbeat.com, 35. www.macysinc.com, 36. www.tradingview.com
