B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Buys New Shares in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 37,763 shares of the retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $5,886,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Target during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Slocum Gordon & Co LLP purchased a new stake in Target during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Target in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Target by 156.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 218 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in Target during the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TGT shares. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Target from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $170.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Target from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Roth Mkm upped their target price on Target from $153.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Target from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Target in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $168.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Matthew A. Liegel sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.13, for a total value of $153,130.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,276 shares in the company, valued at $1,114,173.88. This represents a 12.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Richard H. Gomez sold 6,348 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.17, for a total transaction of $997,715.16. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 123,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,418,510.67. This represents a 4.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,348 shares of company stock valued at $8,290,995 over the last quarter. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Target Price Performance

Shares of TGT opened at $156.00 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $152.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $150.32. The company has a market cap of $71.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. Target Co. has a twelve month low of $128.37 and a twelve month high of $181.86.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 21st. The retailer reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.18 by $0.39. Target had a net margin of 4.18% and a return on equity of 33.10%. The firm had revenue of $25.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.19 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.80 EPS. Target’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Target Co. will post 9.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $1.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. Target’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.28%.

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.