Target Corporation net retail sales from continuing operations for the five weeks ended January 1, 2005 increased 11.3% to $7.548 billion from $6.781 billion for the five-week period ended January 3, 2004. On this same basis, comparable-store sales increased 5.1% from fiscal December 2003.

“Our sales for the month of December were at the upper end of our expectations, driven in part by a higher mix of promotional sales,” said Bob Ulrich, chairman and chief executive officer of Target Corporation. “While we remain comfortable that we will deliver a double-digit percentage increase in EPS from continuing operations in this year’s fourth quarter, we now believe that our actual growth rate will be lower than financial community median expectations.”

For reference, Target Corporation’s fourth quarter EPS from continuing operations in 2003 was 80 cents and the First Call median EPS from continuing operations for fourth quarter 2004 is 94 cents.

  Continuing          Sales     Total Sales    Comparable Stores % Change
  Operations       (millions)     % Change       This Year     Last Year

  December           $7,548         11.3           5.1          5.6

  Year-to-date      $42,556         11.5           5.0          4.3