24/7 Wall St.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) released fiscal third-quarter earnings report before the markets opened last Wednesday. Quite a few retailers faltered this week despite the market hitting new highs. Target, however, was not one of them. In fact, the stock closed out nearly 7% higher for the week and that had a lot to do from this report alone.

24/7 Wall St. has included some key highlights from the earnings report as well as what a few analysts are saying after the fact.

The company said that it had $1.04 in earnings per share (EPS) and $16.44 billion in revenue, compared with consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $0.83 in EPS and revenue of $16.30 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.86 and $17.61 billion in revenue.

During this quarter, net sales also reflected a decrease in comparable sales of 0.2%. Comparable digital channel sales grew 26% and contributed 0.7 percentage points to comparable sales growth.

In terms of guidance for the fourth quarter, the company expects to see sales growth in the range of −1% to 1% and EPS between $1.55 and $1.75. The consensus estimates are calling for $20.86 billion in net revenues and $1.60 in EPS.

Analysts had this to say:

• Nomura reiterated a Hold rating with a $75 price target.
• JPMorgan reiterated a Hold rating with a $79 price target.
• Telsey Advisory Group has an Outperform rating but raised its price target to $84 from $82.
• Buckingham Research set its price target at $85.

Shares of Target closed out the week at $76.19, with a consensus analyst price target of $77.17 and a 52-week trading range of $65.50 to $84.14.

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