Blue Trust Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Target Corporation $TGT

Blue Trust Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,009 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 127 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Target were worth $494,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Target by 407.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 15,970,414 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,666,672,000 after buying an additional 12,825,586 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Target in the 2nd quarter worth $595,839,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Target by 1,364.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,289,692 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $343,312,000 after buying an additional 3,065,035 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Target in the 1st quarter worth $186,361,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Target by 35.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,370,062 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $560,420,000 after buying an additional 1,406,653 shares in the last quarter. 79.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TGT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Target in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Target from $102.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Target from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 17th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Target in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Target in a report on Thursday, September 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.65.

Target Trading Down 3.7%

Shares of TGT opened at $85.79 on Monday. Target Corporation has a 1-year low of $85.36 and a 1-year high of $161.50. The company has a 50-day moving average of $94.48 and a 200 day moving average of $96.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.00, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.32.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 20th. The retailer reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.01. Target had a net margin of 3.72% and a return on equity of 23.43%. The company had revenue of $24.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.57 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Target has set its FY 2025 guidance at 7.000-9.000 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Target Corporation will post 8.69 EPS for the current year.

Target Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $1.14 per share. This represents a $4.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Target’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Target’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.15%.

Target Company Profile

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.