Content about Stock market

New York -- Fairway Group Holdings Corp., operator of the Fairway Market grocery chain, said Wednesday that it raised $177.5 million in its initial public offering after pricing the shares above the marketed range.

Fairway sold 13.65 million shares for $13 each, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, after offering them for $10 to $12. At the offering price, the company has a market value of about $536 million.

The shares, which represent a 33% stake, will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol FWM.

Denton, Texas -- Sally Beauty Holdings announced that its board has approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to $700 million of its common stock. The announcement is the first repurchase authorized by the company in 2013, but the third in the last 12 months.

Minneapolis -- In his Tuesday address to investors and stockholders in New York City, newly minted Best Buy Co. CEO Hubert Joly acknowledged that sales and profits are on a decline, and presented a plan to shore up finances and operations by cutting expenses, rethinking footprints and improving both offline and online customer satisfaction.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only person in the industry to raise an eyebrow when the S&P Retail Index notched an all-time high last month. Closing at $669.26 on Sept.14 to reach that milestone, the index has continued to creep up even further the last couple of weeks. A closer look at the stock market performance of the retail sector shows that both REITs and many individual retailers are continuing a strong positive trend—which makes sense, of course, because REITs will perform better in a strong retail environment when retailers are doing well.

Topeka, Kan. -- Collective Brands stockholders voted at a special meeting on Tuesday to approve the sale of the company for about $1.32 billion.

Collective, which owns the Payless and Stride Rite shoe store banners, had announced in May that it accepted a purchase offer from a group that includes Wolverine Worldwide Inc., Blum Capital Partners and Golden Gate Capital.

New York -- Abercrombie & Fitch plans a big share buyback to appease investors, the New York Post reported, and is also likely to cut back on its aggressive expansion plans in Europe.

The report, which quoted unnamed “insiders,” said the chain is likely to announce its plans on or before its next quarterly earnings report in mid-August.

Atlanta -- The Home Depot on Wednesday expanded its share buyback plan for the year by $500 million and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.

The retailer said it now expects to buy back $4 billion of its shares and that the increase in its share repurchase plan would not have a material impact to earnings per share for 2012.

New York -- Michaels Stores Friday confirmed that it is has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock. According to the filing, the company proposed to raise $500 million in the IPO. The number of shares to be sold and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. anticipates that its annual dividend may hit $3 per share or more by 2017, if its annual earnings are at $8 per share or more by that time.

Target on Monday said it has paid a dividend every quarter since it became a public company in 1967, and in 2011 the company marked its 40th consecutive year of annual dividend increases.

Target also announced that it plans to invest $1.5 billion or more in buybacks in 2012. It invested nearly $1.9 billion in stock repurchases last year.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. said Thursday it will buy back up to $5 billion in shares under a new stock repurchase program.

The current $10 billion program is slated for completion in the next few months, said Target. The newly announced $5 billion program is expected to be completed in the next two to three years.
 

Cherry Hill, N.J. -- Middle market CFOs, buoyed by increasing optimism fueled by sales growth, are prepared to increase capital expenditures by dipping into their stockpile of cash reserves, according to a survey by TD Bank. The top three areas of expected capital deployment include technology (40%), improvements to existing facilities (17%), construction of new facilities (12%),