Target (NYSE:TGT) Trading Up 1.1% – Time to Buy?

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT)’s share price was up 1.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $96.22 and last traded at $96.05. Approximately 1,086,988 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 7,366,115 shares. The stock had previously closed at $95.02.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on TGT. Citigroup decreased their price target on Target from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. KGI Securities set a $132.00 target price on shares of Target in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Target from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $97.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Target from $160.00 to $112.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $116.70.

Target Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market cap of $43.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.46, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $95.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $114.26.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 21st. The retailer reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by ($0.35). The company had revenue of $24.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.54 billion. Target had a return on equity of 25.59% and a net margin of 3.95%. Target’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Target Corporation will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Target Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be issued a $1.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 13th. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.70%. Target’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.23%.

Insider Activity at Target

In other news, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total transaction of $4,328,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 246,453 shares in the company, valued at $23,703,849.54. This represents a 15.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Target

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Target during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in shares of Target in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Target in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Target by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC now owns 264 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Target in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 79.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.