Sheriff Joe
DA
Target’s Shares Pummeled on Poor Holiday ResultsI don't believe the world's most unknown "boycott" has had any effect on Target's share price. But you just keep on buying at Kohl's if you want to. Nobody cares; least of all the shareholders at Target. Because chances are, they also have shares at Kohl's.
Phil Wahba
Jan 18, 2017
Target (tgt, +1.51%) has joined the chorus of retailers reeling from a bad holiday season.
The discount retailer on Wednesday lowered its profit forecast for the year after reporting comparable sales fell 1.3% in November and December, as big gains in its online business were dwarfed by stiff price competition and growing difficulty in getting shoppers into stores.
Target shares were down 4% in premarket trading to $68, continuing a long slide since April when they hit a 52-week high.
The hundreds of millions of dollars Target has been pouring into its e-commerce to help it self-cannibalize its sales rather than lose business to Amazon.com (amzn, +0.36%) and a resurgent Walmart.com (wmt, +1.46%) among others took a big toll on its bottom line.
"The costs associated with the accelerated mix shift between our stores and digital channels and a highly promotional competitive environment had a negative impact on our fourth quarter margins and earnings per share,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said in a statement.
Over the holiday season, online sales rose 30%, a re-acceleration in Target's digital business helped by its greater use of stores to ship orders and serve as pick up spots. But it's also clear that Target's success online came at the expense of what Cornell called "disappointing traffic and sales trends in our stores." Target only gets about 5% of its revenues digitally.
Yes, the target tranny policy problem started in April.