So retail giant Target (TGT) took a good long look at its earnings report, probably moaned like someone in the middle of the worst hangover ever, and began to wonder what it could do to turn things around. Its plan makes some sense given the time of year—a massive price-cutting push—but investors remained skeptical. In fact, investors sent Target shares down fractionally in Wednesday morning’s trading.
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Target plans to cut prices on around 3,000 individual items across multiple categories, particularly food and household items, in a bid to draw more customers into the stores over the holiday shopping season. Target also ramped up the sheer quantity of material available, with 20,000 new gifts, including thousands of toys priced under $20.
Those needing Christmas ornaments will find many options available in the dollar range, while candles will be in the $5 range. Throw blankets, meanwhile, come in around $10, ensuring that there should be some worthwhile gifts, particularly for office Christmas parties or white-elephant events. Commercial officer Rick Gomez noted, “That move to reduce prices is really just one part of a much broader plan to ensure that we’re delivering great value to the consumer, given how important that is to them right now.”
Even Cramer Doesn’t Like It
Hopefully, this move will draw the desired attention, especially when paired with Target’s plan to bring in a special co-branded holiday drink from Starbucks (SBUX). It is clear something needs to be done, as evidenced by Jim Cramer’s recent commentary that says Target is in desperate need of a reboot.
While that reboot might well come when Michael Fiddelke takes control of Target in February, Cramer is looking for more immediate relief from Target’s woes. He noted that Target stores “…have been underinvested in,” and that management can probably go quite some way to recovery just by cleaning up and brightening up the stores a bit.
Is Target Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TGT stock based on eight Buys, 13 Holds and four Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 27.27% loss in its share price over the past year, the average TGT price target of $102.33 per share implies 16.44% upside potential.
