Ackman Sells Options, Buys Target Shares

True to his word it appears Ackman is going for the long haul in Target (TGT). My guess is his TIP REIT idea is not dead and rather have a large option position that management used against him in the proxy fight, he is going to own shares.

It is a good idea. Rather than allow them to say he simply wants a quick profit before his options expire and cares nothing about the long term health of the company, he in one fell swoop both takes that argument away from them and also bolsters his own “I own more shares than management and have more a a vested interest” argument.

Looks like we have another battle brewing….

From the filing:

Item 1. Security and Issuer.
This Amendment No. 9 to Schedule 13D (this “Amendment No. 9”) amends and supplements the statement on Schedule 13D originally filed on July 16, 2007 (the “Original Schedule 13D”), as amended by Amendment No. 1 through Amendment No. 8 (the Original Schedule 13D as amended and supplemented by Amendment No. 1 through Amendment No. 8, the “Schedule 13D”), by (i) Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership (“Pershing Square”), (ii) PS Management GP, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, (iii) Pershing Square GP, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, (iv) Pershing Square Holdings GP, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, and (v) William A. Ackman, a citizen of the United States of America (collectively, the “Reporting Persons”), relating to the common stock, par value $0.0833 per share (the “Common Stock”), of Target Corporation, a Minnesota corporation (the “Issuer”, the “Company” or “Target”).
As of August 7, 2009, as reflected in this Amendment No. 9, the Reporting Persons are reporting beneficial ownership on an aggregate basis of 32,994,586 shares of Common Stock (approximately 4.4% of the outstanding shares of Common Stock), which include shares of Common Stock and shares subject to certain stock-settled American-style call options.

Item 4. Purpose of Transaction.

Item 4 of the Schedule 13D is hereby supplemented as follows:
As of May 26, 2009, the date of the last amendment to this Schedule 13D, the Reporting Persons beneficially owned approximately 7.8% of the then outstanding shares of Common Stock, consisting of 3.3% in shares of Common Stock and 4.5% in stock-settled call options. As a result of the transactions reported in this Amendment No. 9, the Reporting Persons sold options and engaged in net purchases of shares of Common Stock, resulting in a net increase of Common Stock ownership of 0.2% and a decrease of beneficial ownership to 4.4%, consisting of 3.5% in shares of Common Stock and 0.9% in stock-settled call options.

Item 5. Interests in Securities of the Issuer.
(a), (b) Based upon the Issuer’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended May 2, 2009, there were 752,279,589 shares of Common Stock outstanding as of June 3, 2009. Based on the foregoing, 32,994,586 shares of Common Stock (which includes Common Stock and physically-settled listed and over-the-counter American-style call options), representing 4.4% of the shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding, are reported on this Amendment No. 9.
As of the date hereof, none of the Reporting Persons owns any shares of the Common Stock other than as reported herein.
Item 5(c) of the Schedule 13D is hereby amended and restated as follows:
(c) See the trading data for the last 60 days attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1. Exhibit 99.1 is incorporated by reference into this Item 5(c) as if set out herein in full.
Except as set forth in Exhibit 99.1 attached hereto, within the last 60 days, no other transaction in shares of the Common Stock or derivative securities were effected by any Reporting Person.

Link to trading data

Disclosure (“none” means no position):nONE