Target (TGT) Lilly Pulitzer Event Described as 'Crazy,' 'Black Friday-Like'

This weekend's Lilly Pulitzer debut at Target (NYSE: TGT) was met with massive demand at retail stores and nearly crashed the company's website. Analysts called the event 'Black Friday-like'.

Piper Jaffray analyst Sean Naughton noted the following examples from visits to two local Target stores in the Minneapolis area:

• guests ripping items out of boxes and from each other
• chasing down store employees bringing new merchandise on to the floor
• hovering around the dressing rooms for merchandise that may not have fit other guests
• a line of over 300 people waiting to get in the store
• consolidated teams of women going over their loot to determine what they would keep or trade before checking out.

"Overall, it had a Black Friday atmosphere inside the store and many women commented on the adrenaline rush," Naughton said. "Bottom line, it was crazy."

The analyst believes Target "hit a home run" with this collection, although more on the marketing side versus a sustainable traffic and earnings driver.

Still the analyst sees a modest earnings boost from the event. "If we assume that the $77M was all incremental sales versus last year, this would be approximately a 50bp tailwind for the first quarter," he said. "In addition, if we assume these sales go through at 20% operating margin this would yield $0.02/share impact in the quarter or about 2% of our estimate."

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