Target (NYSE:TGT) Sets New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $180.00 to $210.00. Tigress Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Target traded as high as $176.16 and last traded at $174.98, with a volume of 201253 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $174.67.

TGT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Target from $142.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Target from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Target from $176.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Target from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Target from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $149.00 to $206.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Target news, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.52, for a total transaction of $7,538,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 346,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,115,870.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Christina Hennington sold 4,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.88, for a total value of $786,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,487 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,576,658.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.52, for a total value of $7,538,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 346,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,115,870.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,600 shares of company stock worth $8,819,598. Company insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Target

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Target by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,945,524 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $6,401,142,000 after acquiring an additional 417,818 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Target by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,570,634 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,725,904,000 after acquiring an additional 1,529,881 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Target by 95,980.3% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,537,742 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $2,762,865,000 after buying an additional 18,518,448 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Target by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,163,864 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,447,538,000 after buying an additional 868,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Target by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,531,846 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,357,525,000 after buying an additional 137,180 shares in the last quarter. 79.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Target Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market cap of $80.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.56, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.13.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 5th. The retailer reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.57. Target had a net margin of 3.85% and a return on equity of 33.41%. The firm had revenue of $31.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Target Co. will post 9.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. Target’s payout ratio is currently 49.27%.

About Target

Target Corporation operates as a general merchandise retailer in the United States. The company offers apparel for women, men, boys, girls, toddlers, and infants and newborns, as well as jewelry, accessories, and shoes; and beauty and personal care, baby gear, cleaning, paper products, and pet supplies.