Trust Co. of Vermont Has $1.56 Million Stock Holdings in Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT)

Trust Co. of Vermont lowered its stake in shares of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) by 8.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,917 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 1,314 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Target were worth $1,557,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Target by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 21,930,569 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,964,565,000 after purchasing an additional 1,306,552 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Target by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,338,729 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,532,769,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358,348 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Target by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,885,015 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,332,317,000 after purchasing an additional 470,990 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Target during the fourth quarter valued at $757,892,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Target by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,376,640 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $726,814,000 after purchasing an additional 754,883 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 45,000 shares of Target stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 246,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,703,849.54. This trade represents a 15.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Baird R W cut Target from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Roth Capital set a $122.00 price objective on Target in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Bank of America cut Target from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Target from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $97.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on Target from $140.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Target has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.70.

Target Trading Up 1.8%

Target stock opened at $99.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.94. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.16 billion, a PE ratio of 10.92, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.22. Target Corporation has a 52 week low of $87.35 and a 52 week high of $167.40.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last released 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). Target had a return on equity of 25.59% and a net margin of 3.95%. The firm had revenue of $24.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.03 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Target Corporation will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be given a dividend of $1.12 per share. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.51%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 13th. Target’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.23%.

Target 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.