Sunbelt Securities Inc. Buys 67 Shares of Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT – Get Rating) by 2.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,571 shares of the retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Target were worth $382,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TGT. Plancorp LLC boosted its stake in Target by 2.1% during the first quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 2,520 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $535,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Physicians Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Target by 0.4% during the second quarter. Physicians Financial Services Inc. now owns 14,882 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $2,102,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group boosted its stake in Target by 13.5% during the third quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group now owns 506 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Titleist Asset Management LTD. boosted its stake in Target by 1.7% during the third quarter. Titleist Asset Management LTD. now owns 3,644 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Target by 3.4% during the second quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,921 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $271,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. 78.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TGT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Target from $205.00 to $194.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Target from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $170.00 to $142.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 4th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Target in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $183.00 to $144.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered Target from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $190.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 17th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $181.69.

Insider Transactions at Target

In other news, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.98, for a total value of $5,564,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 191,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,408,422.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Target Stock Up 2.5 %

TGT stock opened at $163.05 on Friday. Target Co. has a fifty-two week low of $137.16 and a fifty-two week high of $254.87. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $166.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $160.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.22 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a market capitalization of $75.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.05.

Target (NYSE:TGT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The retailer reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.49. Target had a return on equity of 25.63% and a net margin of 2.55%. The firm had revenue of $31.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Target Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 17th will be given a $1.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 16th. This represents a $4.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. Target’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.24%.

Target Company Profile

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Target Corp. engages in the operation and ownership of general merchandise stores. It offers food assortments including perishables, dry grocery, dairy, and frozen items. The company was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.