Target Corporation’s net retail sales for the five weeks ended Oct. 4, 2008 increased 2.5% to $5,320 million from $5,190 million for the five weeks ended Oct. 6, 2007. On this same basis, September comparable store sales declined 3%.
“Sales for the month of September were below our expectations, reflecting continued daily volatility,” said Gregg Steinhafel, president and CEO of Target Corporation. “Challenges in the current environment, including weak top-line growth in our retail segment and higher net write-off rates in our credit card segment, have increased the likelihood that our third quarter EPS may be slightly below the current First Call median estimate of 52 cents. On balance, we currently expect 2008 full year earnings per share to meet or exceed last year’s full year EPS of $3.33.”
This outlook for 2008 EPS assumes essentially flat year-over-year same store sales in the fourth quarter and a continuation of recent write-off rate trends through the remainder of this year. All earnings per share figures refer to diluted earnings per share.
Sales Total Sales Comparable Stores % Change
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(millions) % Change This Year Last Year
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September $ 5,320 2.5 (3.0) 1.2
Quarter-to-date $ 10,172 2.8 (2.6) 3.5
Year-to-date $ 39,445 4.7 (1.1) 4.3
