Freestone Capital Holdings LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 37,337 shares of the retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 846 shares during the period. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Target were worth $5,047,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TGT. State Street Corp raised its stake in Target by 8.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,484,252 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $5,530,576,000 after purchasing an additional 2,732,801 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Target during the fourth quarter valued at $297,122,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Target by 173.2% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,369,400 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $369,295,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,200 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Target by 11.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,980,381 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $1,555,542,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,044 shares during the period. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Target by 773.1% in the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 832,766 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $129,795,000 after acquiring an additional 737,384 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on TGT. HSBC downgraded shares of Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $138.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Target from $165.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of Target from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $170.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Target from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Target from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $148.23.

Target Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE:TGT opened at $116.70 on Thursday. Target Co. has a fifty-two week low of $112.53 and a fifty-two week high of $181.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 0.94. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $132.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $141.92.

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 net margin of 4.06% and a return on equity of 31.11%. The business had revenue of $30.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.83 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Target Co. will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Target Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th were issued a $1.12 dividend. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 12th. Target’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.56%.

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.