Minneapolis — Fiscal fourth-quarter revenue at Target climbed 11.5 percent, hitting nearly $17 billion, up from $15.2 billion in the same period the prior year, while comp-store sales rose 4.2 percent.
Net income at Target for the fourth quarter, ended Jan. 28, increased 13.7 percent, reaching $939 million, compared with $825 million in the same three months the previous year.
The retailer reported its gross margin rate improved slightly from the prior year, while its expense rate performance was “unfavorable,” due to lower transition-services income from discontinued operations and a planned retiming of advertising expense from earlier in the year. Net interest expensed increased $17 million for the quarter.
“Target produced outstanding results in 2005, surpassing $50 billion in sales and generating strong growth in earnings,” said Bob Ulrich, chairman/CEO. To this end, the retail chain reported 12 month revenue of $52.6 billion, a 12.3 percent rise over the $46.8 billion recorded in 2004. Comp-store sales increased 5.6 percent.
Net income for Target, however, slid to $2.4 billion for the 12 months, down from $3.2 billion the previous year. In 2005, the retailer reported a net interest expense decrease of $107 million, to $463 million, from $570 million in 2004.
Also, Target reported a $1.2 billion gain on disposal of discontinued operations in 2004, adding this amount to the bottom line, compared with no gain on disposal of discontinued operations for the 12 months in 2005.
