Robert Connor, a director at Dillard’s (DDS) recently bought 100 shares. The buy increased his stake by less than 1%, and came to a total cost of $34,682.
This marks the first insider buy over the past two years. Other company directors have been sellers of shares this year, and a few company executives were sellers of shares in 2023 and 2022, at prices close to where the stock trades today.
Overall, Dillard’s insiders own 31.7% of shares.
The department store chain’s shares are up 3% over the past year, far lagging the overall stock market. Investors have been more interested in lower-end retailers amid a slowing economy and an inflation-impacted consumer.
However, Dillard’s trades at 11 times forward earnings, a steep discount to the overall market. And shares trade at 0.8 times their price-to-sales, indicating shares may be a value play at current prices.
Action to take: Shares have been trending lower in recent months, so interested investors should wait for a sign of a turnaround before getting into the stock.
At present, Dillard’s pays a 0.3% dividend, which is too low for investors to sit in while waiting for a turnaround.
For traders, Dillard’s does not have options available, but a similar downtrend is occurring in department store chain Macy’s (M). Put options against those shares could work as a proxy right now.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.