Target Corp blows past Wall Street estimates in the fiscal third quarter

Target Corp (NYSE: TGT) said on Wednesday that its net income in the fiscal third quarter came in at £760 million that translates to £1.51 per share. In the comparable quarter of last year, it had reported £537.27 million of net income or £1.05 per share.

Target was reported about 1.2% up in premarket trading on Wednesday. It is now exchanging hands at £122.24 per share. In comparison, the stock had plummeted to as low as £68.51 per share in the last week of March, as COVID-19 restricted people to their homes. Target shares were trading at a per-share price of £94.87 at the start of the year.

Target’s Q3 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

On an adjusted basis, Target earned £2.10 per share in Q3 that represents an over 100% annualised growth. FactSet Consensus for adjusted EPS for the American retail company stood at a much lower £1.20. In separate news from the U.S., home improvement retailer, Lowe’s, also published its quarterly financial results on Wednesday.

In terms of revenue, Target posted £17.03 billion in the recent quarter versus the year-ago figure of £14.05 billion. According to FactSet, experts had forecast the Minneapolis-based company to report a lower 15.63 billion of revenue in Q3.

Target said that its comparable sales saw a 20.7% year over year increase in the third quarter. Digital comparable sales, it added, were 155% higher than last year while store comparable sales also jumped 9.9%. The 8^th largest retailer in the U.S. also highlighted on Wednesday that over 95% of its sales in Q3 were filled by stores. In comparison, analysts had expected an 11.2% growth in Target’s quarterly comparable sales, as per FactSet.

Other prominent figures in Target’s earnings report

Other prominent figures in Target’s financial report on Wednesday include a 15.6% growth in the average basket and a 4.5% growth in transactions at large in Q3. Comparable sales from electronics were up over 50% in the recent quarter, and from clothing were up close to 10%.

According to the retailer, its same-day services, were used 217% more in the third quarter. In the prior quarter (Q2), Target Corp had registered an 80.3% annualised increase in its profit, as per the report published in August.

At the time of writing, Target Corp is valued at £61.42 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 23.53.