Macy’s shares close higher on Friday, company to hire additional workers for holiday season

Following the strong start of the holiday shopping season, Macy’s Inc (M) on Friday announced plans to hire additional 7 000 temporary workers at its traditional stores in order to service heavy client traffic.

Macy’s shares closed higher for the sixth time in the past seven trading sessions on Friday. The stock went up 1.64% ($0.39) to $24.19, with the intraday high and the intraday low being at $24.40 and $23.39 respectively.

In the week ended on December 3rd the shares of the department store chain added 14.81% to their market value compared to a week ago, which marked a fourth consecutive period of gains and also the best performance since the week ended on August 14th 2016.

The stock has gained 1.64% so far during the current month, following a 26.87% surge in November. The latter has been the best monthly performance since April 2009.

For the entire past year, the shares of Macy’s Inc gained 2.37%. However, the stock has retreated 32.45% so far in 2017.

In September, the company said that as many as 80 000 temporary workers would be hired for the holiday season. Of that number, 18 000 workers would be assigned to distribution centers in order to service orders submitted on-line. In comparison, Macy’s hired 83 000 temporary workers during last years holiday season.

The announced hirings came after credit card processing issues at Macy’s Incs brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday. According to Blair Rosenberg, a spokesperson for the company, the slowdown in processing of credit card transactions was a result of capacity-related issues. Rosenberg also explained that Macys plans for additional hiring had nothing to do with the issue a week ago.

According to the companys representative, the additional workers would aid clients on the selling floor and would also provide assistance with other operations at stores such as picking up on-line ordered items.

According to CNN Money, the 18 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Macy’s Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $22.00, with a high estimate of $36.00 and a low estimate of $16.00. The median estimate is a 9.05% decrease compared to the closing price of $24.19 on December 1st.

The same media also reported that 13 out of 21 surveyed investment analysts had rated Macy’s Inc’s stock as “Hold”, while 4 – as “Buy”. On the other hand, 2 analysts had recommended selling the stock.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, todays levels of importance for the Macy’s stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $24.28
R2 – $24.38
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $24.47
R4 (Long Breakout) – $24.75
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $25.07
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $25.23

S1 – $24.10
S2 – $24.00
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $23.91
S4 (Short Breakout) – $23.63
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $23.31
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $23.15

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Macy’s Inc (M) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $23.23
R1 – $25.86
R2 – $27.53
R3 – $30.16
R4 – $32.79

S1 – $21.56
S2 – $18.93
S3 – $17.26
S4 – $15.59