Target Corp Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (TGT)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Target (NYSE:TGT) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of A. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, solid stock price performance and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures that we evaluated.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• TGT's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 0.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 5.8%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• The stock has not only risen over the past year, it has done so at a faster pace than the S&P 500, reflecting the earnings growth and other positive factors similar to those we have cited here. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.
• TARGET CORP has improved earnings per share by 5.0% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, TARGET CORP increased its bottom line by earning $4.29 versus $4.01 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.30 versus $4.29).
• Net operating cash flow has increased to $1,307.00 million or 24.23% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, TARGET CORP has also modestly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 18.42%.

Target Corporation operates general merchandise stores in the United States. The company has a P/E ratio of 13.6, equal to the average retail industry P/E ratioand below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Target has a market cap of $38.81 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 14.6% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday.

You can view the full Target Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

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