1. Target was mentioned in the chapter as a company that has a high degree of seasonality (and associated working capital issues). Lets use the Internet to examine the seasonality. Go to www.target.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and under the About Target heading, click on Investor Relations. At the top of the page, hold your mouse over Investors and select Analyst Coverage from the drop-down menu. Scroll down to Analyst Forecasts and Actuals. You will see historical and projected data for both quarterly and annual periods.

2. Based on the observed data, which of the four quarters (Qs) is normally best for Target? Why?

3. Which quarter is normally the worst? This may be a close call.

4. Taking the most recent year in which four quarters of data are shown, what percentage of total fiscal year earnings does the best quarter represent?

ANALYST FORECASTS

							Last Month's Revisions
Fiscal Period		Mean	High	Low	Median	# of Estimates	#Up	#Down	Mean % Change
Annual	Jan 20	5.18	5.87	4.19	5.29	19	16	1	17.18
Annual	Jan 19	5.25	5.45	4.85	5.28	25	25	0	17.90
Annual	Jan 18	4.72	4.75	4.67	4.72	25	25	0	3.49
Quarterly	Jan 18	1.37	1.40	1.30	1.36	23	22	0	11.35
Quarterly	Apr 18	1.41	1.48	1.28	1.43	18	18	0	17.85
Quarterly	Jul 18	1.32	1.41	1.18	1.33	18	18	0	17.75
Quarterly	Oct 18	1.00	1.07	0.89	1.01	18	18	0	19.51
Long Term Growth		-1.38	2.70	-7.20	-0.50	4	2	0	-203.64

ACTUALS

		Reported EPS	Mean Estimate	Surprise % Change
Annual	Jan 17	5.01	5.06	-1.00
Annual	Jan 16	4.69	4.72	-0.58
Annual	Jan 15	4.27	3.96	7.71
Quarterly	Oct 17	0.91	0.86	5.90
Quarterly	Jul 17	1.23	1.19	3.47
Quarterly	Apr 17	1.21	0.91	32.39
Quarterly	Jan 17	1.45	1.51	-3.73