Hedge Your Portfolio with This Real Estate Stock at New 5-Year Highs

• Macerich Company (MAC), a retail REIT, is demonstrating strong technical momentum.

• Shares are up nearly 50% over the past year.

• A 2.59% dividend yield also sweetens things for potential Macerich investors.

• Analyst sentiment is mixed with price targets ranging from $19 to $31. 

Today’s Featured Stock

Author’s note: In times of financial uncertainty, real estate starts to look like an attractive edge. This last week, all three of my favorite real estate ETFs – Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ), Cohen & Steers Real Estate ETF (ICF), and the S&P 500 Real Estate SPDR (XLRE) – all showed gains.

Valued at $7.3 billion, Macerich Company (MAC) is a retail real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, acquires, leases, manages, develops, and redevelops regional and community shopping centers in high barrier-to-entry markets. Macerich primarily focuses on the attractive, densely populated markets of the United States. 

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What I’m Watching

I found today’s Chart of the Day by using Barchart’s powerful screening functions to sort for stocks with the highest technical buy signals; superior current momentum in both strength and direction, Weighted Alpha above 50+ and a 60-Month Beta over 1.5. I then used Barchart’s Flipcharts feature to review the charts for consistent price appreciation. MAC checks those boxes. The Trend Seeker issued a new “Buy” signal on June 23. Since then, the stock has gained 7.89%.

Barchart’s Technical Indicators for Macerich

Editor’s Note: The technical indicators below are updated live during the session every 20 minutes and can therefore change each day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com website when you read this report. These technical indicators form the Barchart Opinion on a particular stock.

Macerich scored a 5-year high of $26.39 on July 27.

• Macerich has a Weighted Alpha of 66.55.

• MACE has a 100% “Buy” opinion from Barchart.

• The stock has gained 48.7% over the past 52 weeks.

• Macerich has its Trend Seeker “Buy” signal intact.

• The stock recently traded at $26.14 with a 50-day moving average of $24.19.

• MACE has made 3 new highs and gained 1.7% over the past month.

• 60-month beta of 2.06.

• Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 63.25.

• There’s a technical support level around $25.53.

Don’t Forget the Fundamentals

• $7.3 billion market capitalization.

• 16.98x trailing price-earnings ratio.

• 2.59% dividend yield.

• Revenue is projected to be slightly down by 3.93% this year but increase again by 4.93% next year.

• Earnings are estimated to increase 52.59% this year and an additional 178.57% next year

Analyst and Investor Sentiment on Macerich

• The Wall Street analysts followed by Barchart give the stock 9 “Strong Buy,” 6 “Hold” and 1 “Strong Sell” opinions with price targets between $19 and $30.

• Value Line rates the stock “Lowest” with price targets from $13 to $31.

• CFRA’s MarketScope rates the stock a “Sell” with a price target of $18.

• Morningstar thinks the stock is fairly valued.

• 26,610 investors are following the stock on Seeking Alpha, which rates it a “Hold.”

• Short interest is 9.02% of the float with 4 days to cover the float.

The Bottom Line on Macerich

Right now, real estate is an alternative hedge. In the last few months one new analyst added a “Strong Buy” rating and another one dropped a “Strong Sell” opinion, so that’s a positive revision. Macerich is on track to reach 85% of its “Path Forward” leasing target by midyear, noted Citi analyst Craig Mailman, who also sees additional net operating income upside after the plan from incremental remerchandising. 

Additional disclosure: The Barchart Chart of the Day highlights stocks that are experiencing exceptional current price appreciation. They are not intended to be buy recommendations as these stocks are extremely volatile and speculative. Should you decide to add one of these stocks to your investment portfolio it is highly suggested you follow a predetermined diversification and moving stop loss discipline that is consistent with your personal investment risk tolerance.

On the date of publication, Jim Van Meerten did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com