Target's Investment Strategy Comparison Paper

This report will examine all aspects of Target Corporation and the retail industry with a focus on customer service and innovative sales strategies. It analyzes both the internal and external environment of Target Corporation and identifies the economic trends and factors that influence the industry in key areas such as innovation, technology, political, social cultural and global factors. Moreover, this report will also discuss the core competencies, and resources of Target Corporation which differentiate the company from other competitors. The purpose of this report is to analyze Target Corporation’s current market position; financial strengths and business strategies, internal and external factors that affect the company and ways to

Wal-Mart stores are one of the most successful retailing chains in the world and have an advantage over its competitors. Its low prices, size, and power are what makes Wal-Mart so helpful to Canadians. A few companies, like Walmart, create such controversies when it comes to managing low costs and high profits. So why do some people believe that Walmart is so bad for Canadians? Residents either love shopping at Walmart or they despise it.

Over the 5 years looked at they had a range of 66%-70% in liabilities and 29%-33% in stockholders’ equity. There gross profit never got above 30% in the 5 years and there total net income available to common stockholders was right around 4%, except for the year in which they closed all of their Canadian stores. There weren’t too many surprises in Target’s percentage change statement, again, except the year they close the Canadian stores. Cash went up 83%, while Net income shot up the year after they had to pay for all those stores. Looking at both statements, Target’s future look bright with slight percentage increases in almost every category.

To be able to calculate this information, we use the cost of goods sold formula: Cost of Goods Sold = Ending Merchandise Inventory ($2,737,000) + Cost of Goods Sold ($48,872,000) – Beginning Merchandise Inventory ($3,363,000) = Net Purchases $48,246,000 totaled for 2016 fiscal year.

Wal-Mart has been one of the largest discount stores in the country in recent years surpassing all others with their discount prices and availability of multiple items and brands. In 2006, Wal-Mart Stores saw their performance fall to numbers never seen before since their beginning (Ferrell, Hirt, Ferrell, 2009). Increased competition from Kroger, Safeway, and Costco challenged Wal-Mart for the middle-income customers that they had long serviced. Top competitor, Target, emerged with a more appealing store presence and fashionable merchandise than that of Wal-Mart.

4. Implementation Plan Target Corporation has an aggressive sales goal of 2-3% growth each year for the next five consecutive years. There are several strategies in place that will assist in meeting these sales goals. Target will be enhancing the guest experience through the retail, online and mobile channels.

In summary, Target explains that by creating a diverse and inclusive environment, it feels and believes that those practices make it a champion of its craft. It represents the foundation and culture of its business and engages diversely in its customers. Customers appreciate and acknowledge companies such as Target and these practices can be one of the motivating factors that cause customers to want to visit and consume from

In May 2016, shares of Target fell 13.5% according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Some of this slump was of Target's own doing and some of it wasn't. The stock first took a 5.5% dive on May 11th due to a bevy of disappointing earnings reports from Target's sector rivals. Target investors took this wave of retail weakness as a bad sign for their own holdings. Then, Target's first-quarter report came in, showing a 5.4% year-over-year revenue decline despite slightly higher comparable sales.

Target Corporation (TGT) is an international general merchandise and grocery retailer founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota that works to ensure that the customer is provided with the opportunity to purchase a wide variety of goods such as household products, electronics, pharmacy, personal care products, grocery goods, clothing apparel, and sporting goods in order to achieve customer satisfaction at a discounted price in order to remain competitive within the industry. The primary goal for Target is to overcome their various competitors within the industry in order to generate profit through continuous innovation and delivering outstanding value at each Target location in order to be the preferred shopping destination amongst the customer. In

is a company that’s is economically efficient. They need to meet the demand of their customers at the lowest cost possible. “Economically efficient is the method that produces a given level of output at the lowest cost possible,” (Colander, 2017). Target is definitely working on their technological advances to be able to complete with their competitors as well as be as economically efficient as possible. These advances in technology can also build up revenue both online and in stores which will make Target very efficient.

Technology Development includes technology development to support the value chain activities, such as research and development, process automation, design and redesign. The Technology Development activity at Target Corp is utilized by having the responsibility of delivering a seamless and engaging shopping experience across digital platforms. Creating strategies and solutions that enrich the online experience, making the shopping journey easy and inspiring for guests. technology development including knowing all guests and striving to deliver a personalized experience with digital solutions – online and across all stores. Procurement includes activities of purchasing the raw materials, servicing, spare parts, buildings, machines and other

Product and Industry Overview. The Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) is in the retail industry and boasts multiple brands to support its customer’s needs (NYSE, 2017). The retail industry is composed of vendors selling end user products to consumers. The retail industry can be broken down into two main groups, hardlines such as appliances, electronics and furniture and softlines such as clothing and apparel (Investopedia, 2017). The retail industry also encompasses products offered from motor vehicles along with food and beverage.

The mission statement for Target Corporation is to become better than another shopping destination in all range of activity or interest by furnishing outstanding value, endless innovation and remarkable guest experiences by frequently achieving their “Expect More, Pay Less” brand pledge. (Cite 4 – Target’s Mission Statement). Considering Target is one of the better discount retail chains in the U.S., and one of the greater retail businesses in the world, this merchant’s focal point is on the managers and laborers on carrying out this commitment of the Target brand. The Target Corporation provides an exceptional benefit because of the outstanding prices. While they are presenting daily specials, these market boosts are just for you with

Weighted average cost of capital for Marriot Corporation: In order to determine cost of capital, first we need to find out cost of equity and cost of debt. For determining the cost of equity we need to determine the beta for the target leverage ratio. According to the information provided by exhibit 3 equity beta is estimated at 0.97 when equity-to-total capital ratio is 0.59. Therefore we need to find unlevered beta value so that we can find firm’s equity beta at the desired leverage ratio as mentioned in Table A. Tax bracket of 44% is used based on ratio of income taxes to income before income taxes (175.9/398.9) in Exhibit 1.

The mission statement of Walmart is “saving people money so that they can live better” with the purpose of Walmart has positioned itself as a giant retailer, which offers the goods and services at the cheap price. Through the SWOT analysis, one can be clearer about the internal and external environment and the issues that critically affect the business of Walmart. The brand reputation Walmart is one