Target pledges to reinvest in business
Weak quarter prompts change
NEW YORK - Target Corp., stung by the migration of its customers elsewhere, pledged Tuesday to spruce up its stores and make other investments in its business after delivering weak quarterly results and an outlook far below what analysts were expecting.
The $7 billion investment comes as the retailer said profit for the quarter that includes the holiday season fell 43%, with strong online sales failing to offset weakening business at its stores. Target’s stock tumbled more than 12% and rattled Wall Street, as shares in Wal-Mart, Macy’s and other retailers fell as well.
Target said it will spend the $7 billion over the next three years to remodel more than 600 of its 1,800 stores, speed up its expansion of small-format stores, and launch new brands. The company usually spends about $2 billion a year on such capital investments.
CEO Brian Cornell acknowledged that many of Target’s stores are “old and tired” and haven’t been updated in years. The company also plans to use the backrooms not just to store merchandise but to double as mini-distribution points as Target increases the number of stores that ship directly to online shoppers as it tries to match Amazon’s two-day free deliveries for Prime customers.
Executives who laid out the plan said the spending was necessary in the long term for the company to regain its foothold in a market where shoppers are moving online more and more. Target said it expects profits to start growing again in 2019 but wouldn’t be more specific.
“Our industry is in the midst of a seismic shift,” said Cornell, who also said Target would do better by giving shoppers compelling value as well as great products and a good experience.
All traditional retailers have struggled as Amazon and other online retailers draw shoppers away. Under Cornell, Target had been cutting costs, testing smaller formats, and expanding online services.
But Cornell told investors those efforts weren’t enough given the accelerating shift of shoppers to online.
Instead of seeing momentum in business, Target has seen three straight quarters of declines for a key revenue measure and declining customer counts.
In contrast, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted another quarter of higher customer traffic and samestore sales as its efforts to merge its online services with its vast number of stores have clicked. Its re-emphasis on everyday low prices has also helped attract shoppers.
Cornell said Target’s results reflect “rapidly changing consumer behavior, which drove very strong digital growth but unexpected softness in our stores.”
As part of its investment boost, Target plans to open more than 100 small-format stores in cities near college campuses.
It currently has 32 of these stores, which are tailored to their specific communities. They have twice the sales productivity as the larger stores.
Target also announced the launch of a dozen new homegrown brands, hoping to add $10 billion in sales in the next two years. The company noted that its Cat & Jack children’s clothing brand is on track to generate $1 billion in sales in its first year.
For 2017, Target Corp. is projecting an adjusted profit of $3.80 to $4.20 per share. That wasn’t even close to the pershare earnings of $5.32 that Wall Street was projecting, according to FactSet. Neither was Target’s first-quarter profit projection of 80 cents to $1 per share. Analysts expected $1.33 per share.
Target earned $817 million, or $1.46 per share, for the three months ended Jan. 28. Stripping out certain items, earnings were $1.45 per share, or 5 cents less per share than industry analysts had projected, according to Zacks Investment Research.
It was also well below the $1.43 billion, or $2.31 per share, that the company reported last year.
Sales fell to $20.69 billion from $21.63 billion last year, which was also short of Wall Street projections.
Sales at stores open at least a year, a key measure of a retailer’s health, fell 1.5%. It was the third straight quarter of declines and, like overall sales and profits, weaker than most had anticipated.
The pain has been spread across much of the retail sector. J.C. Penney swung to a profit for the fourth quarter, but total sales fell slightly. Kohl’s Corp. reported a lower fourth-quarter profit and total sales declined.
Shares of Target fell $8.14, or 12.2%, to $58.77 in trading Tuesday.