Target Q4 earnings: retailer warns of another year of weak sales

Target Corp (NYSE: TGT) is trading up in premarket on Tuesday after reporting upbeat results for its fiscal fourth quarter as the team "maintained appropriate inventory levels".

Target stock up despite muted guidance

Investors are content even though the retail behemoth warned of another year of weak sales. $TGT expects comparable sales to be down 3.0% to 5.0% in Q1 on $1.70 to $2.10 of per-share earnings.

Analysts, in comparison, were at a 3.6% decline and $2.08 per share, respectively. Brian Cornell – the chief executive of Target Corp said in the earnings press release today:

$TGT attributed strength in its fiscal fourth quarter also to a focus on lower price points and a decline in supply chain, freight, and eCommerce costs. Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on Target stock.

Target Q4 earnings snapshot

• Earned $1.38 billion versus the year-ago $876 million
• Per-share earnings also improved from $1.89 to $2.98
• Total revenue popped 2.0% year-on-year to $30.98 billion
• Consensus was $2.42 a share on $31.83 billion revenue
• Comparable sales came in down 4.4% versus last year

On Tuesday, Target Corp also reported a 210 basis points increase in its fourth-quarter operating income to 5.8%. CEO Cornell also said in the Q4 earnings report: