Things have not exactly been great at retail giant Target (TGT) lately. Customer boycotts over political matters have been firing up in earnest, and building on top of previous politically-related boycotts. But now, competitors are becoming increasingly an issue, as Target is looking to make a better showing against Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST). Despite these concerns, Target is still having an excellent day so far today, as shares are up over 2.5% in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Telsey Advisory Group senior managing director Joe Feldman spelled out the situation at Target right now: “Target has had several missteps since the peak of COVID where their inventory position was too high. They had to discount heavily to clear through a lot of the inventory. Things were starting to get back on track. Then they got hit with DEI.”
While Target customers are not really shopping less, they also are not shopping much more. Basically, reports noted, Target customers are spending about the same at Target in 2025 as they did in 2021. But they are also spending more at Walmart and Costco. Given the inflationary pressures we have seen, Target customers may be spending about the same, but they are not necessarily walking out of the store with much more. In fact, reports noted that Target has lost around 0.18% of market share, while Costco added 0.15. And Walmart? Up 0.75%, the reports noted.
“More Communication”
Target is also finding increasing concern from its own employees. The biggest reason? Silence from management, reports note. While Target is facing a lot of problems right now, between politically-related boycotts and a slowdown in spending, along with declining foot traffic, management keeping quiet about these things has proven especially troublesome.
Thus, CEO Brian Cornell noted that its “commitment to staff” has not changed. However, GlobalData Retail managing director Neil Saunders said that this is not the kind of thing that should require special communication efforts, and that Target is in “denial” to at least some degree. This is particularly true in terms of product quality, which has not been as good as it was in some time, Saunders noted.
Is Target Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TGT stock based on 10 Buys, 18 Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 37.92% loss in its share price over the past year, the average TGT price target of $127.74 per share implies 33.15% upside potential.
