Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Has $126.09 Million Stock Holdings in Target Co. (NYSE:TGT)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lowered its stake in shares of Target Co. (NYSE:TGT) by 24.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 808,997 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 267,522 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Target were worth $126,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Target by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 119,458 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $18,619,000 after purchasing an additional 9,510 shares in the last quarter. Prana Capital Management LP lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 69,885 shares in the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Target in the third quarter valued at $967,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Target by 1.4% during 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 buying an additional 130,691 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Target

In other news, insider Richard H. Gomez sold 6,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.17, for a total value of $997,715.16. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 123,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,418,510.67. This represents a 4.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on TGT. HSBC lowered Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $138.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Target from $165.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Target from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $184.00 to $108.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $195.00 target price on shares of Target in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Target from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Target presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $160.57.

Target Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Target stock opened at $134.54 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $144.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $147.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Target Co. has a 12-month low of $120.21 and a 12-month high of $181.86. The company has a market cap of $61.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.27, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.17.

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

Target Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were paid a $1.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. Target’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.