Target Corporation reported net earnings for the second quarter ended August 4, 2007 of $686 million, or 80 cents per share, compared with $609 million, or 70 cents per share in the second quarter ended July 29, 2006, representing a 14.0 percent increase in earnings per share. All earnings per share figures refer to diluted earnings per share.
"We are pleased with our second quarter and year-to-date results," said Bob Ulrich, chairman and chief executive officer of Target Corporation. "We continue to believe Target will deliver strong sales and profit performance in 2007 and generate another year of profitable market share growth. We also continue to believe that $3.60 remains within the range of likely outcomes for our full-year 2007 earnings per share."
Total revenues in the second quarter increased 9.5 percent to $14.620 billion from $13.347 billion in 2006, reflecting a 4.9 percent increase in comparable-store sales combined with the contribution from new store expansion and 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 and income taxes (EBIT) in the second quarter of 2007 increased 11.8 percent to $1.267 billion, compared with $1.134 billion in the second quarter a year ago. Key contributors to this EBIT growth included gross margin rate improvement offset by unfavorable expense rate performance, combined with strong profit growth in our credit card operations.
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