Target’s DEI whiplash and stock price roller coaster
On May 24, 2023, Target announced that it was removing items at the center of “significant confrontational behavior” in stores after public backlash against the company’s Pride collection. The recall, spurred on by backlash against products including “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits, was criticized by leading groups in the LGBTQ+ community.
In the weeks following the announcement, outlets including the New York Post, Bloomberg and Fox Business reported on increased market value losses for Target, totaling up to $15.7 billion — the same figure touted in the February 2025 claim.
The figure also featured in reporting about Target’s earnings report for the third quarter (Q3) of the financial year 2024-2025 and the resulting dip in market value. Target shares dipped 21% in a single day following the Q3 earnings report on Nov. 20, 2024. Outlets including Reuters reported the lost market value to be $15.7 billion.
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According to the stock exchange Nasdaq, Target’s stocks reached a 2025 high of $142.51 on Jan. 27, three days after the DEI announcement. Stock prices then fell into February.
While there is no proof that Target lost $15.7 billion in market value after changing its DEI measures in January 2025, DEI-related events from recent years have caused both financial and now legal problems for the company.
As of this writing, plaintiffs in Florida have filed two lawsuits against the company, both claiming they were defrauded by Target because the company failed to disclose the financial risks of its 2023 Pride campaign that sent stocks tumbling.
The most recent of these suits, filed on Feb. 20, was brought as a class-action lawsuit by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. Both lawsuits are ongoing as of this writing.
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What’s going on with Snopes? They don’t seem to be critically evaluating their information.
However, this stock price dip did not appear to be connected to either Pride or DEI measures. According to Reuters, Target CEO Brian Cornell told a post-earnings call that the reasons for the weak Q3 results included low sales of high-margin items like technology,
Yeah, because I stopped shopping at Target for everything including high-margin items like technology after the DEI drop. No, Snopes can’t prove cause and effect, but just taking whatever spews out of the corporate relations department and using that as the sole arbiter of true/false is a less than useless service.
This seems to happen with increasing regularity. Did they get bought by Breitbart or something?
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t drop Snopes as a reliable source of fact-checking?
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t drop Snopes as a reliable source of fact-checking?
I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater over one anecdote. I just use them as one datapoint among many, but you might choose to drop them.
No, Snopes can’t prove cause and effect, but just taking whatever spews out of the corporate relations department and using that as the sole arbiter of true/false is a less than useless service.
I agree with this. As reporters they should be reporting what the corporations have to say on these topic, but the problem is they aren’t engaging with that information critically enough, as you mentioned.
This seems to happen with increasing regularity. Did they get bought by Breitbart or something?
They did get bought out and are under new ownership. I’m considering dropping them from my sources tbh. But the problem is, every fact checking source has it’s own biases and problems. I don’t know that means we should just give up on the endeavour, but it does mean we still have to engage critically with the fact checking resources, rather than assuming they always have the right take.
Thanks. That was an extremely satisfying interaction, and I learned something.
Snopes has always been shit. You just now are disagreeing with their corporate agenda.
