(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — We nailed this call. I’m allowed to say that because I spent last week writing about stocks we put a spotlight on that didn’t work. It bought me some grace? Maybe? Anyway, this winter we talked about Target (TGT) as being a severe laggard relative to Walmart (WMT) and discussed the possibility of it playing catch-up now that the earnings growth story is finally revealing itself. That’s exactly what’s been happening ever since. The stock just did something Walmart shareholders didn’t see coming: it caught up. Back on March 5 , I said these two didn’t belong in the same stadium let alone the same league. Walmart had rocketed 36% higher over the prior year while Target managed just 7%. That gap is now gone. Over the trailing 12 months, TGT is up 41% versus WMT’s 20%, and since we flagged Target in March at $120, the stock has climbed roughly 15% — while Walmart has spent the same stretch round-tripping from a new all-time high back toward flat. The price action makes the story even clearer. Target closed this week at $138, just 3% off its 52-week high of $143. Walmart closed at $113, which is 17% below its own 52-week high. Walmart actually hit an all-time closing high back on May 19 and has been rolling over ever since, while Target kept climbing. None of this erases the longer term performance gap. Since 2016, Walmart is still up something like 474% to Target’s 48%, and that decade-long hole doesn’t get filled in four months, if it ever does. But the short-term momentum has completely inverted from where it sat in March, and that’s exactly the kind of shift that shows up first in the one-year number before it ever reaches the ten-year one. Target shareholders, the trend that got our attention in March has begun to accelerate. Best Stock Spotlight: Target Corp. (TGT) Sean — We wrote about Target on March 5, right after the stock gapped 7% higher on earnings and new CEO Mike Fiddelke laid out his turnaround plan. We said price would be the earliest indicator of whether the turnaround was working and here we are, 16% higher. In May , Target reported its first quarter, and it was the company’s largest revenue beat since November 2021. Net sales grew 6.7% to $25.4 billion and comparable sales rose 5.6%, Target’s first positive comp in five quarters. The comparable sales jump was traffic-driven, which is the healthy kind (as opposed to high prices, which people seem to be tired of). Shopper traffic grew 4.4%, digital sales grew 8.9% and same-day delivery grew more than 27%. All six core merchandise categories grew year over year. Margins are moving the right way too. Gross margin expanded to 29.0% from 28.2%, and CFO Jim Lee specifically credited high-margin revenue streams like Roundel (Target’s retail media network that we highlighted in March) and the Target Plus marketplace, which grew gross merchandise value nearly 60%. Management raised full-year sales guidance to roughly 4% growth (a two percentage point increase) and pointed EPS to the high end of the $7.50–$8.50 range. The remodel story we noted in March is also worth updating. Target opened its 2,000th store during the quarter, has 100+ remodels in progress, and is rolling out “Target Beauty Studio” to more than 600 locations this fall alongside its largest food and beverage assortment refresh in over a decade. Capex is running at $5 billion for the year, up more than $1 billion due to all of these investments. The next earnings test comes Aug. 19. Consensus expects EPS of $2.21, up 7.8%, on revenue of $26 billion, up 3.2%. Management guided for stronger profit growth in the back half as investments phase in and cost savings ramp, so it’ll be a big one (aren’t they all these days?) Buybacks were paused in Q1 but $8.3 billion remains on the authorization and management signaled repurchases may resume in the back half along with another dividend raise. In Q4 of 2025 Target was hitting new lows, down 65% from highs through November. It was a busted stock in the middle of a culture war and a consumer fed up with their in-store experience. Target is throwing a lot at the problems and so far they seem to be sticking. This will be a fun one to keep watching. Risk management Josh — Target (TGT) has done exactly what the chart indicated back on March 5. The stock reclaimed its 200-day moving average, pushed above $120, and hasn’t looked back since. It went on to hit a fresh 52-week high near $142 this month before settling in the high $130s. The old resistance at $120 is now the floor: the stock has come back down to test that level several times on pullbacks since March, and it’s bounced every single time. That’s the kind of behavior that turns a former ceiling into a real support level, and it keeps the pattern of higher lows fully intact through the entire move. Momentum backs up the price action. RSI sits in the low 60s, essentially the same reading that confirmed the breakout back in March, holding well above the weak, sub-50 range that defined the stock during its prior downtrend. It hasn’t spiked into the mid-70s or higher on this move, which means the rally hasn’t gotten ahead of itself even after a 40-plus percent run. There’s no negative divergence to point to either, RSI has kept pace with price as the stock has made higher highs, rather than fading while the stock pushes upward, which is usually the first warning sign that a trend is running out of gas. The level worth watching now is the old entry point itself: $120. That was resistance for most of the past year, and since March it’s flipped into support, the stock has come back down to test it a handful of times on pullbacks and bounced every time. As long as $120 holds, the pattern of higher lows stays intact. Short-term traders can use the 50-day around $129 as the first line of defense, but the level that actually matters is $120. If I’m a trader, that’s my real risk line: a decisive break back below it would be the first real sign the rally is losing its footing, about 18 points, or 13%, below where the stock sits today. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. 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This retailer on Josh Brown’s Best Stocks list continues rising while its biggest rival falls
