Shares of Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) slid in pre-market trading on Wednesday after the retailer reported a big profit miss in the third quarter. Target’s adjusted earnings in Q3 declined 49.1% year-over-year to $1.54 per share and missing analysts’ estimates of $2.16.
However, the company reported revenues of $26.5 billion, up 3.4% year-over-year beating Street estimates by $120 million.
Brian Cornell, Chairman, and CEO of Target stated, “In the third quarter, our business delivered comparable sales growth of 2.7 percent, and we saw unit share gains across all of our core merchandise categories.”
However, Cornell added that in the “latter weeks of the quarter, sales and profit trends softened meaningfully, with guests’ shopping behavior increasingly impacted by inflation, rising interest rates and economic uncertainty. This resulted in a third quarter profit performance well below our expectations.”
When it came to its FY22 guidance, Target stated that it was planning for “a wide range of sales outcomes in the fourth quarter, centered around a low-single digit decline in comparable sales.”
