TGT
Target’s comeback tour keeps rolling
Target just walked off stage with a better-than-expected Q2 in hand, and Wall Street responded the way it usually does when a retailer shows signs of life: by racing to tweak price targets upward. The company beat on both earnings and sales, then did the extra-credit move of lifting its full-year outlook.
The numbers got the crowd nodding
Target posted $2.46 per share, ahead of the $2.33 analysts were looking for, while sales came in at $26.539 billion versus the $26.141 billion consensus. More importantly, management didn't just say “nice quarter” and shuffle away — it raised 2026 net sales growth guidance to about 5% and now sees operating margin around 6%.
That margin forecast includes about 90 basis points of help from second-quarter tariff refunds, which is a very Target sentence if there ever was one. The company also boosted its sales outlook to $110.02 billion from $108.97 billion and lifted both GAAP and adjusted EPS guidance to $9.90-$10.90.
The analyst herd follows the breadcrumbs
After the report, a parade of analysts showed up with higher price targets:
- Guggenheim kept Buy and raised its target to $175 from $150
- RBC kept Outperform and moved to $178 from $166
- DA Davidson kept Buy and boosted to $185 from $170
- Wells Fargo kept Overweight and raised to $185 from $165
- TD Cowen, Evercore ISI, and Piper Sandler also nudged their targets higher
That doesn't mean Target's fixed everything overnight. But when the sales trend improves, the guidance gets juicier, and the analyst notes get friendlier, the stock usually gets a better shot at keeping the momentum going.
Big picture: Target is still in turnaround mode, but this is the kind of quarter that makes the story look a lot more believable.