Macy’s Last Stand

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 21, 8:38AM EST

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Macy’s Last Stand — © Stephen Chernin / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M | M Price Prediction) announced earnings. For the most part, they were treated with pessimism. The holidays, at least one prominent analyst said, will not rescue the storied retailer. And, the COVID-19 crippled economy of the fourth quarter could make its situation even more difficult.

Jefferies analyst Randal Konik wrote, just after the figures came out: “The outlook for holiday is depressed, and we don’t see how this company or the entire department store industry can ever recover from the share losses to discount/off-price and other e-commerce players. Bottom line … Macy’s is in a tough spot.”

There was not a single piece of good news in the earnings report. Revenue fell 21% to $4 billion. The company lost $91 million compared with a $2 million profit in the same period a year ago.

Macy’s had a complex presentation of its current situation in its earnings release. There was nothing to spur optimism.

Macy’s shares are down 47% this year. They have recovered some over the last month. However, it is not enough to show anything other than that the future is grim.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.