On Target

Target Corp. (Minneapolis) announced that profits for its fiscal fourth quarter ending Feb. 3, 2001, rose 5.7 percent from a year ago, beating estimates. It also announced that it has agreed to buy the rights to 35 former Montgomery Ward stores, and will open 30 or more of them as Target stores in 2002, following extensive remodeling. Target had first announced in January that it was looking to buy as many as 50 to 100 former Wards, shortly after the venerable Chicago-based department store retailer declared bankruptcy.