Piper Jaffray Comments On Target Following March Same Store Sales

On Thursday, Target TGT released March same store sales results of down 5.5% which was in line with Piper Jaffray's estimates, but ahead of consensus and at the high end of the company's planned range for the month. The results were driven by a low single digit increase in grocery and beauty, which continue to perform well as the company expands on its P-Fresh frequency driving initiative. As expected, the results were significantly impacted by Easter shifting to later in April this year vs. last year. In addition, management discussed retail EBITDA margins will likely be in the range of 9.7% to 10% which is below Piper's prior model. Piper Jaffray is tweaking its EPS slightly lower, but continues to believe stock price performance will be driven by an improving same store sales trend and as such. Piper Jaffray remains Overweight with a $64 PT on TGT TGT closed Friday at $49.53