Target (TGT) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Target (TGT) closed at $211.29, marking a -1.28% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.37%.

Coming into today, shares of the retailer had lost 7.25% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 6.95%, while the S&P 500 lost 6.01%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Target as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be March 1, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Target to post earnings of $2.85 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 6.74%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $31.53 billion, up 11.27% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Target should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.36% higher. Target currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Target is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.16. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 18.23, which means Target is trading at a discount to the group.

Meanwhile, TGT's PEG ratio is currently 1.12. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Retail - Discount Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.5 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 227, putting it in the bottom 11% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.