TGT Dividend Calculator
Dividend growth rate (CAGR)
| Year | Yield | Div / share | Annual income | Yield on cost | Cumulative income | Portfolio value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4.1% | $4.55 | $370.00 | 3.0% | $370.00 | $11,607 | 104.96 |
| 2 | 5.0% | $4.98 | $522.71 | 3.5% | $892.71 | $13,195 | 132.80 |
| 3 | 6.1% | $5.45 | $723.27 | 4.2% | $1,616 | $14,812 | 165.91 |
| 4 | 7.4% | $5.96 | $988.20 | 5.0% | $2,604 | $16,516 | 205.89 |
| 5 | 9.0% | $6.51 | $1,341 | 6.1% | $3,945 | $18,381 | 255.02 |
| 6 | 11.0% | $7.12 | $1,817 | 7.4% | $5,762 | $20,506 | 316.66 |
| 7 | 13.4% | $7.79 | $2,467 | 9.2% | $8,229 | $23,031 | 395.83 |
| 8 | 16.3% | $8.52 | $3,372 | 11.5% | $11,601 | $26,157 | 500.33 |
| 9 | 19.8% | $9.32 | $4,661 | 14.8% | $16,262 | $30,186 | 642.62 |
| 10 | 24.1% | $10.19 | $6,547 | 19.3% | $22,810 | $35,591 | 843.29 |
Year 1-10 dividend income (preview)
Based on a $10,000 initial investment with $200.00 monthly contributions, DRIP on.
Historical dividends per share
Recent dividends
| Ex-date | Cash amount | TTM yield | Fwd yield | Share price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-13 | $1.14 | 4.7% | 3.8% | $121.48 |
| 2026-02-11 | $1.14 | 4.9% | 4.0% | $114.61 |
| 2025-11-12 | $1.14 | 6.1% | 5.0% | $91.91 |
| 2025-08-13 | $1.14 | 5.3% | 4.3% | $105.36 |
| 2025-05-14 | $1.12 | 4.7% | 4.7% | $95.26 |
| 2025-02-12 | $1.12 | 4.4% | 3.5% | $127.50 |
| 2024-11-20 | $1.12 | 3.6% | 3.7% | $121.72 |
| 2024-08-21 | $1.12 | 2.8% | 2.8% | $159.25 |
| 2024-05-14 | $1.10 | 3.4% | 2.8% | $158.96 |
| 2024-02-20 | $1.10 | 2.9% | 2.9% | $149.89 |
| 2023-11-14 | $1.10 | 4.9% | 4.0% | $110.79 |
| 2023-08-15 | $1.10 | 4.3% | 3.5% | $125.05 |
Source: Polygon.io. Last 12 dividend distributions, most recent first. TTM yield = sum of last 12 months of payments ÷ share price on ex-date. Forward yield = this payment × detected payout frequency ÷ share price on ex-date.
About TGT
Target Corporation — ticker TGT — is one of the largest US general-merchandise retailers and one of a small number of US companies whose dividend record qualifies for the "Dividend King" bracket reserved for fifty-plus consecutive years of annual increases. Target has raised its dividend in each of the last fifty-three-plus years, with the streak dating back to 1971 — a stretch that predates the Walmart Supercenter format, the rise of e-commerce, and every modern recession in the US data. The streak survived 2008-09, when general-merchandise demand was under acute pressure as US consumers traded down to grocery-led peers; it survived the 2020 COVID demand shock, when discretionary categories swung violently; and it has survived multiple cycles of competitive pressure from Walmart, Amazon, and the warehouse-club channel. Fifty-plus years of unbroken annual increases through that range of conditions is structural evidence that Target's board treats the dividend as a near-contractual commitment rather than a discretionary outflow that flexes with quarterly results.
Target operates in the Consumer Cyclical sector, specifically broadline general-merchandise retail. The store base is built around the ~2,000-store US footprint of large-format Target stores, the smaller-format urban Target locations, and an integrated e-commerce platform whose fulfillment is increasingly delivered out of the store backroom rather than from dedicated warehouses. The mix tilts noticeably more discretionary than Walmart's: apparel, home goods, beauty, and seasonal categories together carry a larger share of Target's revenue than they do at WMT, where grocery dominates the mix. That difference in mix is the single most important variable when comparing the two — Target's earnings move more with the consumer-discretionary cycle than Walmart's do, and the share price has historically been more cyclical as a result, even though the dividend record itself has been remarkably stable through that volatility.
The dividend mandate sits at the center of Target's capital-allocation policy and is the primary reason the streak has held through cyclical pressure. Management has consistently funded the annual increase out of operating free cash flow, with share repurchases as a secondary but meaningful lever and reinvestment in stores, supply chain, and digital fulfillment as the third leg of the capital plan. Target maintains an investment-grade credit profile (A-rated), supported by the cash flow from the large-format US store base. Expense ratio is not applicable to individual stocks — the figure you'll see in the calculator above is zero, since there is no fund wrapper between you and the underlying shares. The dividend has not been cut in Target's modern public-company history; the consecutive-increase record stretches uninterrupted from 1971 to the present.
How TGT pays dividends
Target pays cash dividends quarterly, on a March–June–September–December cadence. The board declares the per-share amount each quarter; the ex-dividend date typically falls in the second or third week of the second month of each quarter, and the pay date falls roughly two to three weeks after the ex-date. Holders who own shares as of the close on the day before the ex-date receive the dividend; holders who buy on or after the ex-date wait for the next quarterly payment. On the ex-date the share price drops by approximately the distribution amount on the open, reflecting the fact that the company has paid the cash out of its balance sheet.
Holders who DRIP through their broker receive additional shares purchased at the prevailing market price around the pay date. Most major brokers offer fractional-share DRIP for Target, so the full cash distribution is reinvested even when the per-share amount divided by the share price doesn't produce a whole number. The mechanics are identical to any other quarterly US dividend stock — there is no managed-distribution policy, no covered-call overlay, and the cash that funds the dividend comes from operating free cash flow generated by the US store base and the e-commerce platform combined.
Recent growth pattern: Target has typically announced one annual increase per year, with the new quarterly per-share rate taking effect on the September payment. The size of the annual hike has historically run in the high single digits, with occasional double-digit raises in particularly strong cash-flow years — somewhat faster than the typical Dividend King in consumer staples but consistent with what a profitable general-merchandise retailer can support while continuing to invest in supply chain and digital fulfillment. The five-year trailing dividend growth rate has run in the high single digits, though the most recent annual hikes have been more modest as Target has navigated post-2022 margin pressure. The calculator on this page uses a recent dividend growth rate to project the income line forward; you can override this with a custom growth rate.
Target's dividends are qualified for the long-term capital-gains rate in taxable accounts, given the standard sixty-day holding-period rule. Most buy-and-hold investors clear this threshold easily. In tax-advantaged accounts the qualified-dividend treatment is moot because no current-year tax applies.
Who TGT suits
Target suits investors who want exposure to a long-streak Dividend King in US retail with a moderate-to-high current yield, and who are comfortable holding through cyclical earnings swings driven by the discretionary mix. The yield typically sits in the three-to-four-percent range — meaningfully higher than Walmart's roughly one-percent yield, reflecting the fact that Target's share price has moved with the discretionary-retail cycle while WMT has compounded through the e-commerce ramp. The trade-off is the canonical higher-yield-cyclical pattern: a larger current cash payment in exchange for more volatile underlying earnings and a more cyclical share price than a defensive grocery-led peer.
The comparison readers most often want is TGT versus WMT — the two large US broadline retailers, with dividend shapes that diverge sharply along the cyclicality axis. Walmart's grocery-led mix produces a defensive earnings base that is relatively insensitive to the consumer cycle, which the market has rewarded with a higher multiple and a correspondingly lower dividend yield. Target's higher discretionary mix produces more cyclical earnings, a lower multiple in pressure windows, and a correspondingly higher dividend yield. Both companies have long streaks — Walmart at fifty-plus years, Target at fifty-three-plus years — and neither has cut its dividend in the modern record. The honest framing is that the choice between TGT and WMT is primarily a choice about yield-versus-defensiveness preference within the same sector, not a choice about dividend reliability — both are well-established Dividend Kings.
The other comparison worth keeping in mind is TGT versus COST. Both are large US retailers with intact dividend records, but the shape of the cash return diverges: Costco pays a regular yield under one percent supplemented by periodic large special dividends, while Target pays a higher regular yield without specials. An investor whose primary objective is steady quarterly cash flow will find Target's shape more useful than Costco's lumpier total cash return. The 2008-09 stress test is particularly informative for Target — the company held its annual-increase cadence through one of the worst general-merchandise demand environments in US history, which is the kind of evidence that supports framing Target as a contractual-style dividend stock rather than a discretionary payer.
In taxable accounts, Target's dividends benefit from qualified-dividend treatment. In tax-advantaged accounts the treatment is moot. As with any single-stock position, this content is educational only; it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold Target, and individual circumstances vary. Retail-sector-specific risks — including general-merchandise demand swings, margin pressure from supply-chain costs and shrink, and competitive pressure from Walmart, Amazon, and the warehouse-club channel — should be weighed against the fifty-three-year dividend continuity record.
Hypothetical scenarios
Scenario 1: $10,000 invested in Target ten years ago
Consider a hypothetical purchase of $10,000 of Target stock ten years ago, held through to the present with quarterly dividends reinvested via DRIP. Target's dividend record is unbroken across the holding window — the annual-increase cadence that has now run for fifty-three-plus consecutive years continued through the entire ten-year scenario, with one annual hike per year typically announced in mid-summer and taking effect on the September payment. The entry-yield level at the start of the window was in the low-to-mid single digits, modestly higher than the broader S&P 500 average; the position has compounded along two axes — per-share dividend growth and DRIP-driven share-count growth — since.
Three structural forces operate over the holding window. First, the per-share dividend grew each year at a high-single-digit pace, with one larger raise in the strong-cash-flow window of 2021 and more moderate raises through the 2022-onward margin-pressure window. Second, the share count grew as DRIP reinvested every quarterly distribution; given Target's moderate-to-high entry yield, DRIP contributed a meaningful share of total share-count growth, particularly in the pressure windows when the share price drifted lower. Third, the share price moved with the consumer-discretionary cycle — substantial appreciation through the 2020-21 demand window, a meaningful drawdown in 2022-23 as margin pressure compressed the multiple, and a partial recovery since. The DRIP component therefore reinvested at a mix of high and low prices over the window, which is structurally how a buy-and-hold position in a cyclical Dividend King accumulates.
The illustrative outcome is not a precise dollar figure. The structural point is that Target's long-streak record gave the holder confidence that the annual increase would continue through both the strong-demand and the margin-pressure windows, which is the central feature that distinguishes a Dividend King from a cyclical payer that adjusts the dividend with the cycle. This is offered as a structural illustration of how a long-streak retail position works on DRIP, not as a forecast of future returns.
Scenario 2: $50,000 today plus $500/month for 20 years
Consider a hypothetical accumulation strategy in Target: $50,000 starting capital, plus $500 per month added on a regular cadence for 20 years. The calculator on this page can model this exactly — set Initial investment to $50,000, Extra contribution to $500, Contribution frequency to Monthly, time horizon to 20 years, and leave DRIP on. Use a moderate dividend growth assumption — mid single digits — broadly consistent with Target's long-run pace, slightly more conservative than the trailing five-year figure to acknowledge that the recent hike sizes have been more modest than the early-2020s peak.
The mechanics: each month, the new $500 buys additional shares at the current price, which adds to the share count and therefore to next quarter's dividend. Each quarter, the dividend received from all accumulated shares is reinvested, adding more shares at the prevailing price. Because Target's entry yield is moderately high — typically three to four percent — the DRIP component contributes a relatively larger share of total share-count growth than the same DCA setup would for a lower-yield stock. Over 20 years this dual-track accumulation builds a position whose annual cash distribution is meaningful, with the magnitude sensitive to the per-share growth assumption and the path of Target's share price across the discretionary-retail cycle.
What's worth focusing on in the calculator is how sensitive the projection is to the dividend growth assumption. With 3% per-share growth, the income line grows mostly through share-count expansion from DCA and DRIP. With a 7% per-share growth assumption — consistent with Target's long-run history — the income line grows along two axes simultaneously and reaches a substantially higher terminal value. Modeling Target with a growth assumption inside that range is reasonable for the long-run base case; a stress case with lower growth captures the risk that a future cyclical pressure window produces several years of more modest hikes than the long-run pace. Real outcomes depend on Target's free-cash-flow generation across the consumer-discretionary cycle, the competitive path against Walmart and Amazon, tax treatment in your specific account, and the broader path of US equity markets. Educational only; not a forecast.
Sources & methodology
Dividend history and price data come from Polygon.io's reference and aggregates endpoints. Forward yield is computed as the sum of the most recent four cash distributions divided by the previous-close share price. The dividend growth rate shown on this page is the compound annual growth rate of total annual distributions across the available history in this snapshot.
Last updated: 2026-05-15.
Information here is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Past dividend history does not guarantee future payments. Verify all figures with the issuer or a registered financial advisor before making investment decisions.