Joule Financial LLC Buys 113 Shares of Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

Joule Financial LLC grew its stake in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,672 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 113 shares during the quarter. Joule Financial LLC’s holdings in Target were worth $226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in Target by 8.3% in the third 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. FMR LLC raised its position in Target by 11.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,980,381 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,555,542,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,044 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Target by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,414,025 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,461,456,000 after purchasing an additional 130,691 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Target by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,374,851 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $647,652,000 after purchasing an additional 279,656 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Target by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,321,055 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $517,620,000 after purchasing an additional 62,916 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on TGT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $184.00 to $108.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Roth Mkm cut their price objective on shares of Target from $157.00 to $131.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Target from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Target from $160.00 to $120.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Target from $165.00 to $130.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and sixteen 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 price target of $158.23.

Target Stock Up 0.3 %

TGT stock opened at $133.62 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $136.13 and a 200 day moving average of $145.14. The firm has a market cap of $61.22 billion, a PE ratio of 14.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.16. Target Co. has a twelve month low of $120.21 and a twelve month high of $181.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 31.11% and a net margin of 4.06%. The company had revenue of $25.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.10 EPS. Target’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Target Co. will post 8.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th 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 3.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 12th. Target’s payout ratio is 47.51%.

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.