Target is heading into the holiday season with a gloomy outlook, with the retailer reporting its sales and profit fell short of analysts' expectations and lowering its earnings forecast for the current quarter. Its shares tumbled almost 20% in pre-market trading. Shares of Target tumbled $28.78, or 18.5%, to $127.22 in premarket trading. The retail chain said its third-quarter sales rose 1.1% to $25.7 billion, while net income dropped 12% to $854 million, or $1.85 per share.
The retailer's struggles in the most recent quarter and its lowering of its forecast for the current quarter may not bode well for its holiday season, he added.'Sales have virtually flatlined and have done so against the backdrop of a very poor prior year,' Saunders said in a Wednesday research note.