Retail giant Target (NYSE: TGT) announced last week that it will be closing down all 133 of its Canadian locations. The company notified costumers to expect liquidation of the chain’s merchandise to begin in about 2-3 weeks and to be completely finished in 4-5 months.
Target Canada filed an application for protection under the company’s CCAA with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto following the announcement.
Brian Cornell, Target Corporation chairman and CEO, said in a statement, “After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021. Personally, this was a very difficult decision, but it was the right decision for our company.”
Target lost a total of $2 billion from its Canadian operations.
As a result of this Canadian shutdown, Target Corporation will now operate as a single company in the U.S. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2014, Target will only report adjusted earnings per share from its U.S. operations and exclude all Canadian operations from its results.
Despite the disappointing news, BMO Capital analyst Wayne Hood reiterated an Outperform rating on Target and raised his price target from $75 to $82 on January 20. The analyst noted, “Our comments follow our initial impressions research note after management announced that it would exit the company's Canadian operation as there was not a step change in sales and profitability in 4Q14 nor was there a realistic scenario that could be developed that would lead the segment to profitability until at least 2021 without additional invested capital.”
Overall, Wayne Hood has a 79% success rate recommending stocks and a +16.9% average return per recommendation.
Separately on January 16, MKM Partners analyst Patrick McKeever reiterated a Hold rating on Target with a $70 price target following the company’s liquidation announcement of its Canadian stores, according to AnalystRatings.
Patrick McKeever currently has an overall success rate of 86% recommending stocks and a +14.6% average return per recommendation.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Target on TipRanks is Hold.
