Results beat Target Corp.'s expectations of a flat to slight rise in the sales figure. Analysts had expected a 1 percent increase.
Food and household essentials remained the biggest sellers with furniture and apparel sales about flat with last year.
The Minneapolis company expects April sales in stores open at least one year to be up in the mid- to upper-single digits because of an earlier Easter.
Sales at stores open at least a year are a key measure of retailer performance because they measure growth at existing stores rather than from newly opened ones.
