Target Pushing North Into Canada

Discount retailer Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) is planning a big push into Canada, according to comments made Tuesday by the company’s chief financial officer.

The news apparently cheered investors. Target’s shares were up 85 cents, or 1.7%, at $50.11 in midday trading, an exception on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 120 points on fears of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis and earnings from Alcoa (NYSE:AA) that disappointed.

The comments by CFO Douglas Scovanner were first reported by Dow Jones Newswires. A call to Target for response was not immediately returned to FOXBusiness.com.

Scovanner told an industry conference that Target hopes to open more than 200 stores in Canada over the next decade.

Target will initially open 100 to 150 stores, according to Scovanner, and that’s taking place in the wake of the company’s $1.8 billion purchase in January of more than 200 leases held by Hudson Bay Co.’s Zeller Stores.

Scovanner said the expansion by Minneapolis-based Target should generate an estimated 6 billion in Canadian dollars by 2017.

According to Dow Jones, Target’s expansion into Canada is part of a larger strategy to boost sales to $100 billion or more by 2017 and double its per-share earnings to more than $8. Target reported $66 billion in sales in 2010.