Shares of Target Corporation (TGT) reached a new 52-week high of $69.84 on Wednesday, Mar 27, owing to the company’s strategic initiatives toward enhancing its global footprint.
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) operator of general merchandise and food discount stores in the United States eventually closed at $69.05, recording a robust return of 18.1% year to date. The company currently trades at a forward P/E of 14.80x, a 5.3% discount to the peer group average of 15.63x.
Target has been focusing on the Canadian market, and plans to open 124 stores in 2013.
New store openings outside the United States are expected to be accretive to the company’s top and bottom lines and improve its cash flow generation capability.
Alongside, Target is extending its reach in the fast developing cooking and kitchenware market with an aim to draw more traffic by enhancing its portfolio of offerings. Target entered two separate transactions to acquire the CHEFS Catalog and assets of Cooking.com.
Target plans to sustain its remodeling program at the existing general merchandise locations by the addition of an expanded food section along with a greater assortment of dry dairy and frozen items, improved store layout and enhancement of in-store shopping experience across departments, such as apparel, home, beauty, shoes and baby.
Further, the company will match prices with Amazon.com Inc.’s (AMZN) Amazon.com, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (WMT) Walmart.com, Best Buy Co. Inc.’s (BBY) BestBuy.com, and Toysrus.com.
Going forward, Target, with its smaller-format stores called CityTarget along with its price matching policy and the REDcard reward program, certainly enjoys a competitive advantage over its peers.
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