Financial News

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. has purchased two online retailers of cooking equipment in a move designed to expand its cooking and kitchenware business, said the mass merchandise retailer, which has lately made major investments in multichannel retailing.

Target announced the purchase of Cooking.com and CHEFS Catalog, both of which will continue to operate under their current names as a single, wholly owned subsidiary of Target. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. has sold its consumer credit card portfolio to TD Bank Group for $5.7 billion, the mass merchandise retailer said.

WASHINGTON — Retail sales for the month of February rose by 1.1% seasonally adjusted month to month, according to figures released Wednesday by the Department of Commerce.

The newly released figures include nongeneral merchandise categories, such as automobiles, gas stations and restaurants; excluding those, sales rose 0.7%, while rising 0.5% unadjusted year over year. The National Retail Federation noted that sales beat estimates as consumers adapted and adjusted spending in response to higher gas prices and the payroll tax increase.

SUNBURY, Pa. — Weis Markets has re-upped president and CEO David Hepfinger's contract with a new five-year deal, according to an 8-K filing made Wednesday. 

The new contract is retroactive to March 1 and supersedes Hepfinger's previous contract enacted March 1, 2010. 

Weis shares were up slightly by 26 cents to $41.02 in mid-morning trading.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Costco Wholesale increased sales by 8% to $24.34 billion in the second quarter of 2013, the club retailer said Tuesday.

Sales for the first half of the fiscal year were $47.55 billion, a 9% increase over the first half of fiscal year 2012. The company's U.S. business had same-store sales of 5% for the quarter and 6% for the first half of the year, while profits were $547 million, compared with $394 million last year. Profits for the first half of the year were $963 million, compared with $714 million last year.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — VoicePort today announced a finalized agreement to deploy their services with WellSpan Health, a new client located in York, Pa., offering a vast array of inpatient, outpatient, home health and physician services.

The company will install two of VoicePort's patient solutions: PharmaRemind patient notifications and Meducation prescription translation, education and written instruction service. Both innovative solutions will enter Wellspan Health's pharmacy work-flow in pursuit of delivering improved medication adherence for their pharmacy patients.

AMSTERDAM — Ahold is buying back about $650 million worth of shares, with plans to finalize the deal within 12 months, the Dutch retail company said Monday.

Ahold — which operates the Stop & Shop, Giant-Carlisle and Giant-Landover supermarket banners and the Peapod online grocery service in the United States through its Ahold USA subsidiary — said the purpose of the share-buyback program was to return value to shareholders.

While the Food and Drug Administration released draft guidance on regulations for biosimilars in February 2012, the final regulations have yet to appear. But already, everyone from analysts to trade groups to drug makers is preparing for a time when knock-off versions of biotech drugs will become available.

A new report sheds light on some of the opportunities and challenges that exist in follow-on biologics, arguing that their opportunity to generate value depends on factors like the speed of development, clarity of regulation, ease of access and the roles of all stakeholders.