A Target Corp. 401(k) plan participant filed a class-action lawsuit against the Minneapolis-based company alleging a breach of its fiduciary duties in continuing to offer its company stock fund as an investment option in the plan.
The lawsuit, filed July 12 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleges that Target knew “or should have known” that the stock was artificially inflated during the class period from Feb. 27, 2013, to May 19, 2014, “making it an imprudent retirement investment for the plan given its purpose of helping their participants save for retirement.”
The defendants said during that time the company suffered due to opening its first group of stores in Canada.
As of Dec. 31, the Target Corp. 401(k) Plan and Target Corp. Ventures 401(k) Plan had a total of $7.3 billion in assets, according to the company’s most recent 11-K filing. The plan’s master trust held 25,684,780 shares of Target common stock worth a total of $1.8 billion.
Target spokeswoman Erika Winkels said in an e-mail that the company does not comment on pending litigation.