Stock prices for Target continue to fall six weeks after its decision to drop DEI initiatives resulted in nationwide boycotts, with a 40-day “fast” against the major retailer starting Wednesday, March 5.
According to the Nasdaq stock exchange, Target’s stock price fell from a high of $142.5 on Jan. 27 to a high of $118.22 on Tuesday, March 4. It represents a 17% drop since the last high after abandoning its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
While it’s not possible to directly attribute the stock price drop to the recent boycotts, the backlash has placed Target in the spotlight.
On Jan. 24, days after Trump signed executive orders demonizing diversity, Target joined other major corporations in dropping DEI-related policies and positions. Following Trump’s inauguration, Target abruptly dropped its three-year DEI goals, stopped all external diversity-focused surveys and changed its “supplier diversity” team to supplier engagement.
“Throughout 2025, we’ll be accelerating action in key areas and implementing changes with the goal of driving growth and staying in step with the evolving external landscape,” Target announced.
Are boycotts impacting Target’s stock price?
The decision faced immediate backlash from consumers, labor unions and civil rights organizations across the country. For weeks, calls to boycott Target, Walmart, Tesla and other major companies have grown, culminating in an Economic Blackout during the last day of Black History Month, Feb. 28.
Target witnessed a 9% drop in website traffic and an 11% drop in foot traffic nationwide overall on Feb. 28, according to Forbes, which cited Placer.ai, a company that uses phone location data to track visits.
Target did not immediately respond to a Black Wall Street Times request for comment.
Some Black business owners and consumers fear boycotting Target will negatively impact Black brands that worked hard to reach its shelves. “We don’t want these minority businesses to suffer or to be impacted negatively,” Melissa Butler, CEO of the Lip Bar, said on Tiktok.
Meanwhile, not everyone is convinced the boycotts are even behind Target’s stock price drop.
Professor Jared Clemons is an assistant professor at Temple University. He emphasized that correlation doesn’t automatically equal causation. In other words, the drop in stock price could be due to several factors outside of the boycotts.
“I don’t think Target or any institution is going to reinstate anything until there is clarity judicially around what DEI is,” Clemons told the Black Wall Street Times. He believes Target and other major companies won’t reverse their decision to drop DEI policies until the courts decide on the constitutionality of Trump’s executive orders.
Professor says boycotts without strikes won’t work
On Monday, a federal judge in Maryland upheld a lower court injunction blocking key aspects of Trump’s executive order banning DEI. Efforts to eliminate DEI in the public and private sectors have escalated after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked affirmative action in college admissions.
“Companies are acting because they’re fearful of legal ramifications,” Clemons said. With the branches of government in disagreement over the legality of DEI, Clemons said he believes it will take more than boycotts to definitively impact company decisions or Target’s stock price.
“Boycotts as a tactic really rose in tandem with labor strikes,” Clemons said, pointing to the days of segregation when Black Americans established the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaigns. Operating in isolation “reduces how effective it can be,” Clemons said.
What’s next?
Professor Clemons, a self-described socialist who appears on the Polisideeye YouTube talk show, said forcing companies to move against Trump will require labor militancy, “but we don’t have that,” he said.
That isn’t stopping organizations and Americans across the country from voting with their wallets.
Now, the Minneapolis-based retailer chain is gearing up for a fresh new wave of boycotts as Target stock prices continued to decrease Wednesday
Atlanta-based pastor Rev. Jamal Bryant kicked off what he calls a “consumer fast” against the company. It coincides with Lent, the Christian fasting holiday that runs from March 5 to April 17.
“We’re asking people to divest from Target because they have turned their back on our community,” Bryant told CNN Wednesday.
“Black people spend upwards of $12 million dollars a day, and so we would expect some loyalty, some decency and some camaraderie,” Bryant said.
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