CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Boosts Stock Holdings in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its holdings in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) by 20.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,278 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,083 shares during the period. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Target were worth $849,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TGT. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Target by 1.8% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 28,025 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $4,368,000 after acquiring an additional 490 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Target by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 119,458 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $18,619,000 after buying an additional 9,510 shares during the last quarter. Prana Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Target by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Prana Capital Management LP now owns 217,081 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $33,834,000 after buying an additional 69,885 shares during the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Target during the third quarter valued at $967,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Target by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 130,691 shares during the period. 79.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on TGT. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Target from $195.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Target in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Daiwa America lowered shares of Target from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. HSBC downgraded shares of Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup cut Target from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $188.00 to $130.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $160.57.

Target Price Performance

Target stock traded down $3.64 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $137.98. The company had a trading volume of 1,702,116 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,231,200. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $137.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $145.53. Target Co. has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $181.86. The company has a market capitalization of $63.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.25.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 20th. The retailer reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.30 by ($0.45). Target had a net margin of 4.06% and a return on equity of 31.11%. The business had revenue of $25.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.10 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Target Co. will post 8.6 EPS for the current year.

Target Company 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.