TGT – Quick Take – Solid qtr expected, solid qtr delivered; How much 1x benefit did they have? Sustainability is the question

Research evidence excerpt

TGT – Quick Take – Solid qtr expected, solid qtr delivered; How much 1x benefit did they have? Sustainability is the question

Truist Securities

Equity Research Report May 20, 2026

CONSUMER: Hardlines/Broadlines Target Corporation (TGT)

TGT – Quick Take – Solid qtr expected, solid qtr delivered; How Scot Ciccarelli, CFA

212-319-3920 much 1x benefit did they have? Sustainability is the question

Scot.Ciccarelli@truist.com

Joshua Young, CFA Net/net – After an extremely difficult CY25, the company has made some changes to the

212-590-0924 C-suite and is attempting to lean into their historical strengths of improved merchandise

Joshua.Young2@truist.com (especially in fashion categories like Home and Apparel) and investing back into store

wages/hours. The investor challenge is to assess whether 1QCY26 is the beginning of new

Shervin Zand growth phase for Target or if it was the beneficiary of outsized tax refunds and some mini-

212-590-0987 fads, like Pokemon. While the stock has performed well off the bottom, it is now trading over

Shervin.Zand@truist.com 15x current year EPS for a company that we still think has sizable competitive challenges

and is in an environment where many other high-quality retailers are trading well below

Joseph Civello historical relative multiples. As a result, we remain on the sidelines for now and look for an

212-590-0968 opportunity to become more constructive. More after today’s call.

Joseph.Civello@truist.com

1Q sales/comps above our recent revision – Target posted a comp gain of 5.6% vs. our

recently-raised forecast of 4.0%, driven by a 4.4% increase in Transactions and a 1.1%

gain in Ticket. Their 2-yr stack of 1.8% is the best it has been since 1Q23 (although Target

Current Price (May 19, $127.24 has endured a couple of challenging years).