Target’s Efforts To Boost Efficiency Should Pay Off, but Competition Limits Its Margin Potential

Target has adapted to retail digitization, but we believe it faces a highly competitive environment with negligible customer switching costs, exacting pressure to elevate service while holding prices low. Without the scale of Walmart and Amazon or the differentiated business models that characterize moat-endowed defensive retailers we cover, we expect no-moat Target will be vulnerable to the competitive onslaught.