Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Target Corporation $TGT

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) by 85.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,437 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 65,795 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Target were worth $1,128,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TGT. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Target by 14.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,444,338 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,074,984,000 after acquiring an additional 6,607,982 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Target in the 2nd quarter valued at $595,839,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Target during the 2nd quarter valued at $578,009,000. State Street Corp raised its position in Target by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,736,101 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $3,624,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529,026 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Target by 133.9% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,223,776 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $219,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,273,129 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Target from $87.00 to $80.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Target in a report on Thursday, September 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 price target on shares of Target in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Roth Capital set a $88.00 price objective on Target in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Target from $105.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.62.

Target Trading Up 0.6%

TGT opened at $97.67 on Tuesday. Target Corporation has a one year low of $83.44 and a one year high of $145.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 10.56 and a beta of 1.13.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 19th. The retailer reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $25.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.44 billion. Target had a return on equity of 22.74% and a net margin of 3.58%.The business’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.85 earnings per share. Target has set its FY 2025 guidance at 7.000-8.000 EPS. Analysts predict that Target Corporation will post 8.69 EPS for the current year.

Target Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were given a $1.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $4.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. This is a positive change from Target’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. Target’s dividend payout ratio is 55.34%.

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.