Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) Declares $1.12 Quarterly Dividend

Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 12th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be given a dividend of 1.12 per share by the retailer on Monday, September 1st. This represents a $4.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.57%.

Target has a dividend payout ratio of 54.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Target to earn $9.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.1%.

Target Trading Down 2.7%

NYSE:TGT opened at $98.08 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.66. The stock has a market cap of $44.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.22. Target has a 1 year low of $87.35 and a 1 year high of $167.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 21st. The retailer reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by ($0.35). Target had a return on equity of 31.11% and a net margin of 4.06%. The business had revenue of $24.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Target will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on TGT. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Target from $130.00 to $120.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Baird R W downgraded shares of Target from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Target from $160.00 to $112.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Roth Capital set a $122.00 price target on Target in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Target from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 45,000 shares of Target stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total transaction of $4,328,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 246,453 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,703,849.54. The trade was a 15.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Target

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Target stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) by 101.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,080 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 3,059 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Target were worth $822,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

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.