Target Corporation reported a 10.8% comparable store gain during November, but sales fell short of internal plans. Total sales increased 16.7% to $5.97 billion from $5.12 billion. Comparable-store sales in the year-ago month grew 1.1%.
“Our sales results largely met expectations through our two-day post-Thanksgiving event, but softness in the final week of November caused the month overall to fall short of our planned range,” said Bob Ulrich, chairman and chief executive officer. “This late-month sales shortfall was concentrated in key seasonal categories including toys and holiday trim, but other home and apparel categories fell short of expectations as well. These sales trends would need to meaningfully improve in December in order to achieve fourth quarter EPS growth.”
In the year-to-date period, sales rose 10% to $48.1 billion. Same-store sales gained 5.1% against a 4.9% gain last year.
