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Target (TGT) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Target (TGT - Free Report) closed at $67.80 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.53% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.54% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.64%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.95%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the retailer had lost 20.8% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 5% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.97% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from TGT as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be March 5, 2019. In that report, analysts expect TGT to post earnings of $1.51 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 10.22%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $23.13 billion, up 1.58% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.39 per share and revenue of $75.57 billion. These totals would mark changes of +14.44% and +5.14%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for TGT should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.12% lower. TGT is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note TGT's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.4. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.7, so we one might conclude that TGT is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that TGT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.07. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Discount Stores industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.48 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 186, which puts it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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