Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Sells 2,529 Shares of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) by 1.5% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 165,229 shares of the retailer’s stock after selling 2,529 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Target were worth $17,243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Target in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Target in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Target by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC now owns 264 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Target in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its stake in shares of Target by 951.4% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 389 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on TGT. Robert W. Baird set a $100.00 price objective on Target in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Bank of America downgraded shares of Target from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $145.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Target from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Target from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $97.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Target from $92.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-five have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.70.

Insider Activity at Target

In other news, insider Brian C. Cornell sold 45,000 shares of Target stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.18, for a total transaction of $4,328,100.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 246,453 shares in the company, valued at $23,703,849.54. The trade was a 15.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Target Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TGT opened at $102.64 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $111.16. Target Corporation has a 1-year low of $87.35 and a 1-year high of $167.40. The stock has a market cap of $46.64 billion, a PE ratio of 11.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.22.

Target (NYSE:TGT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 21st. The retailer reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $24.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.54 billion. Target had a return on equity of 25.59% and a net margin of 3.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.03 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Target Corporation will post 8.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Target Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.12 per share. This represents a $4.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.36%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 13th. Target’s payout ratio is 49.23%.

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.