Blair William & Co. IL Decreases Holdings in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

Blair William & Co. IL cut its stake in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) by 14.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 79,480 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 13,378 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Target were worth $10,744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in Target by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,484,252 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $5,530,576,000 after acquiring an additional 2,732,801 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Target by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,025 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,461,456,000 after purchasing an additional 130,691 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Target by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,832,585 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $518,089,000 after purchasing an additional 234,409 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Target by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,144,828 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $425,118,000 after purchasing an additional 91,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in Target by 173.2% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,369,400 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $369,295,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Target in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. KGI Securities set a $132.00 price target on Target in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Target from $134.00 to $124.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Gordon Haskett cut Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group dropped their price target on shares of Target from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Target has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.40.

Target Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE:TGT opened at $103.63 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $122.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.46. The company has a market cap of $47.21 billion, a PE ratio of 10.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.18. Target Co. has a fifty-two week low of $101.76 and a fifty-two week high of $181.86.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 4th. The retailer reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.17. Target had a return on equity of 31.11% and a net margin of 4.06%. The company had revenue of $30.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.83 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Target Co. will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.12 per share. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 14th. Target’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.56%.

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.