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

In the latest trading session, Target (TGT) closed at $220.58, marking a +1.53% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.28%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.29%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.19%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the retailer had lost 1.7% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 10.9% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.39% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Target as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.85, up 6.74% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $31.53 billion, up 11.27% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $13.20 per share and revenue of $106.52 billion. These totals would mark changes of +40.13% and +13.86%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Target should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% higher. Target is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Target currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.46. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.66, so we one might conclude that Target is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that TGT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.14. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. TGT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.86 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 197, which puts it in the bottom 23% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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