NEW YORK — Federated Department Stores Inc. shares will trade under the ticker symbol "M" if shareholders approve changing the company's name to Macy's Inc., the company said Wednesday.
In changing its symbol to M from FD — which the retailer has traded under since 1992 — Federated will join an elite group of 15 companies represented by a single letter on the New York Stock Exchange.
The change will be before shareholders at Federated's May 18 annual meeting, and the stock symbol change would be effective on June 1. The company opted to shorten its proposed new name from the previously announced Macy's Group Inc.
Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, operates more than 850 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the Macy's and Bloomingdale's names.