Target Corporation is a major retailer with 1934 stores in the United States and Canada. It has 1,801 stores in United States and 133 in Canada. Schauber (2014) states that it mostly caters for middle and upper-income customers. Its products category includes household essentials, food and pet supplies, apparel and accessories and Home furnishing and décor. The company’s headquarters is in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It was founded in 1902 and as of 2013, ranked 36th on the Fortune 500. Target worked hard to turn around after a difficult year in 2013. The company suffered a massive cyber-security breach, and it also did not have successful results from launching in Canada. With its many years in business and the recent setback, it makes it a good choice for financial analysis.
On 19th November 2014, Target reported its third quarter results for the fiscal year. According to Google Finance (2014), Target has succeeded by increasing its sales from the same period last year by 2.8% to 17.7 billion dollars. The United States segment of the company reported an increase in digital sales by more than 30% (Schauber, 2014). The Canada branch of the company reported a 44% increase in sales and an increase in gross margins from 14.8% to 19.5% after they cleared out excess inventory. Target has a chance to improve its digital sales and a continued increase of returns in the Canada branch after the unsuccessful launching in 2013. They also have a chance to record high profits during the upcoming holiday season especially if the company improves its operations and product assortment.
The report can help the management plan on strategies to improve their numbers in the next quarter. If any strategy changes have occurred and according to this report no increased profits have gotten recorded then, the management should think of other alternative strategies they can implement. Also, if any changes or new implementations have led to an increase in profits then the company can develop other ways to make more improvements. For instance, following an increase in digital sales, the management has decided to launch personalization engine for customers making online purchases (Schauber, 2014). The system can generate product recommendations for customers on the digital platform. Although it is still at the beta stage of implementation, it has produced great results so far.
Target has worked hard to recover from its recent setback which have even led to the hiring of a new CEO. According to their numbers, they are still one of the largest retailers and will continue being so with the implementation of the right strategies.
References
Google Finance. (2014). Target Corporation Income statement, Balance Sheet, & Cash Flow. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:TGT&fstype=ii
Schauber, D. (2014, November 27). Did Target’s Q3 Earnings Hit the Mark? Seeking Alpha. Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.com/article/2715275-did-targets-q3-earnings-hit-the-mark
