Target Corporation
Lead Plaintiff Deadline 05/30/2023
The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on behalf of those who acquired Target Corporation (“Target” or the “Company”) (NYSE: TGT) securities during the period from August 18, 2021 through May 17, 2023 (the “Class Period”). Investors have until May 30, 2023 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Target operates general merchandise discount stores and food discount stores.
On May 18, 2022, in Target’s Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission attaching a press release containing the Company’s financial and operating results for the first quarter ended April 30, 2022, the Company revealed that Target had missed profit estimates widely, with cost of goods sold increasing 10% year over year and operating income declining to $1.3 billion from $2.4 billion in the prior year. In the filing, Target also revealed that its operating margin was “well below expectations, driven primarily by gross margin pressure reflecting actions to reduce excess inventory.” On this news, the price of Target shares declined by $53.67 per share, or approximately 24.93%, from $215.28 per share to close at $161.61 on May 18, 2023.
The lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose that: (i) Target’s strategy for mitigating supply-chain constraints by over-ordering inventory had severely limited the Company’s ability to timely respond to evolving consumer behavior; (ii) as a result, the purported “massive influx of insights” gained from the extraordinary heightened demand during the pandemic could not be leveraged by Target to react to rapidly changing trends; and (iii) due to Target’s inability to timely react to changes in consumer trends, Target’s sales declined and the Company was left with an overabundance of inventory, forcing Target to take large markdowns, and severely impacting the Company’s financial results.