Q1 2025 Target Corp Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

John Hulbert; Vice President, Investor Relations; Target Corp

Brian Cornell; Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; Target Corp

Rick Gomez; Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer; Target Corp

Michael Fiddelke; Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer; Target Corp

Jim Lee; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President; Target Corp

Christopher Horvers; Analyst; JPMorgan

Kate McShane; Analyst; Goldman Sachs

Rupesh Parikh; Analyst; Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.

Michael Lasser; Analyst; UBS Equities

Edward Kelly; Analyst; Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Target Corporation first quarter earnings release conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. John Hulbert, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

John Hulbert

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. On the line with me today are Brian Cornell, Chair and Chief Executive Officer; Rick Gomez, Chief Commercial Officer; Michael Fiddelke, Chief Operating Officer; and Jim Lee, Chief Financial Officer. In a few minutes, Brian, Rick, Michael, and Jim will provide their insights on our first quarter performance along with their outlook and priorities for the remainder of the year. Following their remarks, we'll open the phone lines for a question-and-answer session.
This morning, we're joined on this conference call by investors and others who are listening to our comments via webcast. Following the call, Jim and I will be available to answer your follow-up questions.
And finally, as a reminder, any forward-looking statements that we make this morning are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those described in this morning's earnings press release and in our most recently filed 10-K.
Also in these remarks, we refer to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted earnings per share. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP numbers to the most directly comparable GAAP number are included in this morning's press release, which is posted on our Investor Relations website.
With that, I'll turn it over to Brian for his thoughts on the quarter and his priorities for the remainder of the year. Brian?

Brian Cornell

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. As I begin today, I want to pause and thank our team. Throughout the quarter, the Target team of more than 400,000 employees across the country stayed focused on what's most important, serving our guests, supporting each other and delivering trend, style, convenience and value. At Target, our road map for growth serves as a guide for bringing the best of our brand to life each day. This includes our assortment of on-trend affordable products and an experience that prioritizes ease, convenience and a personal touch with every interaction, all at an incredible value. These are the things that make Target, Target, and we remain confident that our strategy will allow us to continue bringing joy to millions of American families while, importantly, paving the way for long-term profitable growth.
In the first quarter, our team and our business faced an exceptionally challenging environment that affected our performance with declines in both traffic and sales, most notably in our discretionary categories. For several years now, we've seen pressure in our discretionary businesses as spending adjusted down from elevated levels during the pandemic and then move further away in the face of historically high inflation and needs-based categories. On top of those ongoing challenges, we faced several additional headwinds this quarter, including five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs and the reaction to the updates we shared on belonging in January.
While we believe each of these factors played a role in our first quarter performance, we can't reliably estimate the impact of each one separately. I want to be clear that we're not satisfied with this performance, and we're moving with urgency to navigate through this period of volatility. Throughout our operations, we're focused on consistency and reliability with an emphasis on retail fundamentals and delivering a superior guest experience that features newness, differentiation and value.
For the summer season, we're offering more than 10,000 new items, starting at just $1. In the popular Bullseye's Playground, we will continue offering items at $1, $3 and $5. And we're expanding this assortment to include beauty items as well as trending snacks and beverages. And by July, we'll shift to the critical back-to-school and college season, standing tall for value as we focus on supporting families during key life moments.
We're also finding new ways to move faster and operate differently given that uncertainty and the pace of change are higher than ever. This morning, we announced the formation of an enterprise, acceleration office, which Michael will be leading, as well as several organizational changes to bring even more clarity and speed to how we operate and advance our strategy across the company.
As I said in this morning's announcement, this effort goes beyond improving efficiency with a focus on greater adaptability, innovation, resilience and ultimately, growth. Based on his expertise and the insights he's gained for more than 20 years at this company, Michael is the perfect leader for this work.
As you'll hear from Rick, the merchandising team has been working tirelessly to mitigate the impact of tariffs. And the difficulty level has been incredibly high, given the magnitude of the rates we're facing and a high degree of uncertainty on how these rates and impacted categories might evolve.
As a company that's aimed to deliver great products and outstanding value, we're focused on supporting American families as they manage their budgets. We have many levers to use in mitigating the impact of tariffs and price is the very last resort. Our strategy is to remain price competitive by leveraging the capabilities, long-standing relationships and the scale that set us apart for many of our retail peers.
For example, we're fortunate to have a sourcing team with decades of experience and strong partnerships with our global suppliers. As we're engaging in contingency planning with those vendor partners, we're moving thoughtfully and contemplating a wide range of potential scenarios. And we're building our plans to preserve maximum flexibility while protecting our business in the face of massive potential costs.
At the same time, we remain committed to supporting this year's investment plans in support of our long-term growth. These investments include an outstanding pipeline of new stores, ongoing remodels of existing locations and robust investments in technology and our supply chain. Because of this company's long history of disciplined financial management, we have a strong balance sheet and ample cash that will allow us to navigate through these near-term challenges as we continue to invest in making us even stronger over time.
In planning for the remainder of the year, we believe it's prudent to expect that current top line pressures will continue in the near term. However, the results in the quarter provided several key insights that reinforce our confidence in the underlying strength of our business, and Target's continued relevance with American consumers.
Among those high points, we saw mid-single-digit growth in our first-party digital business this quarter, led by 36% growth in same-day delivery powered by Target Circle 360. We also saw continued healthy growth in Drive Up,which now accounts for nearly half of our total digital sales. And of course, beyond the direct benefits of rising digital sales, they also fuel the growth of profitable services like Roundel, our retail ad business; and Target Plus, our third-party digital marketplace, both of which saw double-digit growth in Q1.
Target strength has been and will always be our products, partnerships and incredible value, especially today as consumers feel increased pressure, we aim to deliver everyday discovery and delight. This connection between Target and our guests came through during key seasonal moments in the first quarter, including both the Valentine's Day and Easter holidays. In addition, we were pleased with the guest response to our most recent Target Circle Week as we offer compelling promotions across multiple categories.
And of course, we were really pleased with the success of our limited time design partnership with Kate Spade. Target has long been famous for these programs and sales results from the Kate Spade partnership were the strongest we've seen in a decade. This highlights the power of the Target brand, our continued style authority and our best-in-class design and sourcing capabilities, which come together to deliver a singular combination of fashion, quality and price.
Progress on inventory shrink was another bright spot in the quarter as rates continue to moderate from extreme levels we encountered in 2022 and 2023. And as Michael will highlight later, we're pleased with the performance of the long-term investments we're making in our business, including the return on our investments from new locations and the boost in traffic and sales from our store remodeling projects. In a period of volatility and rapid change, we are absolutely focused on what we do best, providing the best retail experience for nearly 2,000 communities we're proud to serve.
We're a company that aims to bring joy to everyone every day, and we're proud to be one of the largest employers in the United States. We believe in creating opportunity for all in developing talent to fuel our business, which includes pathways for promotions, industry-leading pay and benefits and outstanding education and training. We provide tuition assistance through our Dream to Be program with more than 30,000 team members enrolling the program since its launch in 2023. Simply put, what we do wouldn't be possible without the incredible Target team.
Making meaningful connections within our communities is also part of being a great retailer, and we take our commitment to serving the communities in which we operate seriously. Our team volunteers 1 million hours a year with local organizations, and we will continue, as we have for more than 60 years, to donate 5% and of our profits back to the community. And of course, we continue to work with a large and diverse base of vendors and suppliers, ranging from big national brands to a host of small emerging brands who help us to offer the one-of-a-kind assortment our guests expect from us.
Every day, in everything we do, we will continue to be anchored in the belief that creating an environment where people feel included, supported and respected makes us a stronger company. It helps us build and support our talented team, serve millions of guests in all 50 states and be a valued partner in the communities we serve.
As I get ready to turn the call over to Rick, I want to pause and thank our team once again. I'm proud of their resilience and long-term focus. I'm confident we're taking the right steps to accelerate our progress, do more of what our guests love and to usher in the next chapter of Target's growth story.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Rick.