“Later this quarter, we plan to recommend that our Board approve a small increase in the quarterly dividend in support of our goal to build on our decades-long record of annual dividend increases and move toward a 40% payout ratio over time.”

In context

“d expect to see and something that should be sustainable over time. Now I want to turn to capital deployment and briefly reiterate our priorities, which have been consistent for several decades. First, we look to fully invest in our business and projects that meet our strategic and financial criteria. Second, we look to support our dividend and build on our decades-long record of annual dividend growth. And finally, we deploy excess cash to repurchase shares within the limits of our middle A credit ratings. Regarding the first priority, first quarter CapEx was just under $700 million, and we remain on track to invest a total of $3 billion to $4 billion for the full year. Regarding the second priority, we paid dividends of $508 million in the first quarter, up about 2% from a year ago. Later this quarter, we plan to recommend that our Board approve a small increase in the quarterly dividend in support of our goal to build on our decades-long record of annual dividend increases and move toward a 40% payout ratio over time. Regarding the third priority, we didn't repurchase any shares in the first quarter, consistent with the expectation I shared at our Financial Community Meeting. As I mentioned at that time, we focused on strengthening our balance sheet throughout 2023 and saw a rapid recovery in our debt metrics. And as I also mentioned that day, given our expectation for Target's financial performance for the remainder of 2024, we may have the ability to resume share repurchase activity later this year while maintaining our debt ratings at the middle A level. Now I'll close my commentary on the quarter by covering our after-tax return on invested capital. For the trailing 12 months through the end of Q1, our business delivered an after-tax ROIC of 15.4%, up from 11.4% a year ago. An after-tax return”