Target Corp., an upscale discounter that provides high-quality, on-trend merchandise, recently announced that the company will resume a $10 billion share buyback program due to improving operations. In an effort to preserve cash during what the company considered “an exceptionally challenging environment,” Target halted its stock repurchase plan in November 2008.

At the end of the third quarter of 2009, Target had acquired 95.2 million shares for approximately $4.9 billion, equivalent to half of the amount authorized by the company’s board in late 2007. The company’s executive management team hopes to complete the buyback program over the next two to three years.

Sales for stores operating for at least one year increased 1.8 percent during the five weeks ended January 2, 2010, due to better-than-expected customer traffic at the end of the year. Total sales companywide increased less than 1 percent to $59.15 billion.

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