Nordstrom’s board to repurchase 500 million in shares

Upscale department store operator Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) has announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program, which permits the company to repurchase 500 million dollars in shares on Friday, February 17, ‘EventVestor’ reported.

This buyback authorisation permits the retailer to re-acquire up to 6.3 percent of its stock through open market purchases. Although there might be many reasons for a traded company such as Nordstrom to repurchase its own stock, the most likely one in this case – according to analysts consulted by FashionUnited – is taking advantage of the current stock’s undervaluation to increase or reinstate its weight on the company’s equity capital without issuing any additional shares.

On a related note, a number of research firms have changed their views on Nordstrom’s shares recently. Cowen and Company lowered their target price on Nordstrom from 64 to 50 dollars and set an “outperform” rating for the company in their last report on the stock.

Meanwhile, Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Nordstrom from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating, while analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc downgraded shares of Nordstrom from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set their target price on the stock at 35 dollars apiece.

Finally, Credit Suisse Group AG upgraded shares of Nordstrom from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a 58 dollars price objective for the company in a research note.

Nordstrom has a 12 month low of 35.01 dollars and a 12 month high of 62.82 dollars. The firm has a market capitalisation of 7.95 billion dollars.