Target Corporation reported net earnings for the third quarter ended October 28, 2006 of $506 million, or 59 cents per share, compared with $435 million, or 49 cents per share in the third quarter ended October 29, 2005. All earnings per share figures refer to diluted earnings per share.
"We are pleased with our third quarter and year-to-date results," said Bob Ulrich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Target Corporation.
"We continue to believe that our strategic discipline, consistent execution, and commitment to deliver the right combination of innovation, design and value will delight our guests and produce profitable market share growth in this year's fourth quarter and well beyond."
Total revenues in the third quarter increased 11.2 percent to $13.570 billion from $12.206 billion in 2005, driven by the contribution from new store expansion, a 4.6 percent increase in comparable store sales and the contribution from our credit card operations.
Total revenues include retail sales and net credit card revenues. Comparable-store sales are sales from stores open longer than one year.
Earnings before interest expense and income taxes (EBIT) in the third quarter of 2006 increased 15.0 percent to $957 million, compared with $831 million in the third quarter a year ago. Both our core retail operations and our credit card operations contributed to this EBIT growth.
Within our core retail operations, gross margin rate wasslightly favorable to the prior year, while the company's expense rate in the quarter was unfavorable to the prior year.
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