Trexquant Investment LP Buys New Shares in Dillard’s, Inc. (NYSE:DDS)

Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new position in shares of Dillard’s, Inc. (NYSE:DDS) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 3,891 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,680,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in Dillard’s by 177.3% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 61 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in Dillard’s by 85.3% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 215 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in Dillard’s by 102.3% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 261 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Grove Street Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Dillard’s during the fourth quarter worth approximately $222,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Dillard’s by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 518 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.15% of the company’s stock.

Dillard’s Trading Up 10.9 %

Shares of NYSE:DDS opened at $326.94 on Thursday. Dillard’s, Inc. has a 12-month low of $282.24 and a 12-month high of $510.00. The stock has a market cap of $5.20 billion, a PE ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 0.66. The business has a 50 day moving average of $401.19 and a 200-day moving average of $414.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $13.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.84 by $3.64. The business had revenue of $2.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.49 billion. Dillard’s had a return on equity of 32.13% and a net margin of 9.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $15.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Dillard’s, Inc. will post 33.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Dillard’s Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Dillard’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.71%.

Insider Activity at Dillard’s

In other Dillard’s news, VP Tom W. Bolin sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $433.45, for a total transaction of $130,035.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,167 shares in the company, valued at $505,836.15. This represents a 20.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 33.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DDS. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Dillard’s from $200.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Telsey Advisory Group restated a “market perform” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Dillard’s in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Dillard’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday.

About Dillard’s

Dillard’s, Inc engages in the retail of fashion apparel, cosmetics, and home furnishings, and other consumer goods. It operates through the Retail Operations and Construction segments. The Retail Operations segment comprises sells cosmetics, ladies’ apparel, ladies’ accessories and lingerie, juniors’ and children’s apparel, men’s apparel and accessories, shoes, and home and furniture products.