Target Corporation: Traffic grew 3.6% and management framed it as the sustainability anchor

Target Corporation 2026 Q2: Financial Performance summary

• Digital strength was led by same-day delivery, with same-day delivery up more than 25% year over year.
• Excluding tariff refunds, gross margin rate was about 1 percentage point higher vs. last year, benefiting from lapping elevated markdown/cancellation costs and growth in higher-margin revenue.
• GAAP and adjusted EPS were $4.11 vs. $2.05 last year; tariff refunds contributed $1.65, and excluding refunds both GAAP and adjusted EPS were ~20% higher.
• Gross margin rate was 33.7%, up 4.7 percentage points vs. last year, including 3.7 percentage points from IEEPA tariff refunds.
• Operating performance was strong: operating margin rate was 9.6% vs. 5.2% last year; tariff refunds contributed 3.7 points of benefit (excluding refunds, ~70 bps improvement).
• Q2 net sales were $26.5B, up 5.3% vs. last year; comparable sales rose 3.8%.
• Traffic increased 3.6% and average ticket was about flat; store comp grew 2.7% while digital comp rose 8.7%.