There are some cracks emerging in the facade of retail giant Target (TGT). Foot traffic is still down even six months after the last boycott hit. Moreover, there could be another boycott brewing that will hit Target ahead of holiday shopping season. The idea left investors cold, and shares slipped nearly 1.5% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
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Target has had some serious trouble lately with political matters. Around two years ago, during the Biden administration, conservatives took aim at Target. They launched a boycott over Target’s sale of LGBTQ-themed merchandise, as well as certain policies about the store’s restrooms. The boycott seemed to work, and Target pivoted, changing display policies, bathroom policies, and even later making the move to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in accordance with new policies from President Trump.
But liberals saw that the boycott plan worked, and launched their own, in protest of the DEI shutdown. Reports noted that foot traffic at Target is down, and falling. In fact, foot traffic fell for the sixth month in a row in year-over-year comparisons. Yet not all the lost foot traffic is attributable to politics. Some believe that Target is “…slipping on retail basics,” like empty cart corrals and understocked, unclean shelves.
Another Boycott Brewing?
There are also signs that another boycott could be in the works, which might hit Target at the worst possible time: holiday shopping season. Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant has been working on the notion of getting his flock to stop shopping at Target stores, again over issues of DEI. Bryant took to his pulpit to insist “Something’s gotta break!” in the midst of a sermon about debt, divorce, and drugs, after which he quickly pivoted to taking on Target.
While Bryant acknowledges that the momentum is against him—especially given that the Trump Administration is referring to DEI programs as “illegal DEI”—Bryant believes that a boycott might also serve as a “…way to energize those younger churchgoers that remain,” a number that has been falling off historically since at least 2007. So if Bryant, and those like him, believe they may be able to use a Target boycott to put life back in their churches, then a boycott may indeed be coming.
Is Target Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TGT stock based on 11 Buys, 17 Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 27.62% loss in its share price over the past year, the average TGT price target of $103.40 per share implies 0.51% upside potential.
