Can Macy's Fix Its Balance Sheet With Real Estate Sales?

In early 2016, Macy's (NYSE: M) management realized that the company had too much debt. While Macy's had investment-grade credit ratings, growing competition and falling mall traffic were starting to erode the retail icon's profit margins, undermining its ability to support its more than $7 billion of borrowings.

As a result, Macy's dramatically slowed (and soon suspended) its share repurchase program and began to aggressively reduce its leverage, using a combination of free cash flow and asset-sale proceeds. Over the next four years, Macy's slashed its debt load by more than $3 billion, ending fiscal 2019 with just over $4 billion of debt.

Source Fool.com