Minneapolis — Fueled by a one-time, one-billion-dollar gain from the sale of its Marshall Field’s department store chain, Target Corp.’s second-quarter earnings nearly quadrupled to $1.4 billion for the three months ended July 31.
Excluding the sale of Marshall Field’s to The May Department Store Company, earnings from continuing operations grew 11 percent to $366 million, which reflects a pre-tax loss of $74 million on the repurchase of debt at a premium.
Earnings before interest and income taxes grew 16.4 percent over the prior-year period to $795 million, and gross margin rate improved due to improvements in markup and markdown rates, the company said.
Driven by new store expansion, total revenue grew 10 percent to $10.6 billion while same store sales increased 3.9 percent.
“We are pleased with our strong second-quarter results at Target Stores, and confident that we will continue to enjoy profitable market share growth throughout the remainder of 2004 and well into the future,” said corporate chairman/CEO Bob Ulrich.
