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.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hostess Brands on Thursday announced that the stalking horse bid submitted by McKee Foods for the Drake's snack cake brand will be presented for approval to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, as no other qualified bids were received for those assets.

McKee has agreed to pay $27.5 million for the Drake's brand and certain equipment. Drake's products include Ring Dings, Yodels, Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles, Sunny Doodles and Drake's Coffee Cake.

CINCINNATI — Kroger's board of directors on Thursday declared a quarterly dividend of 15¢ per share to be paid on June 1 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 15.

In 2012, the company's board of directors raised the quarterly dividend by approximately 30%, to 15¢ per share. Since reinstating dividends in 2006, Kroger has increased the dividend each year and expects to continue to do so, the company noted.

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

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.

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.

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.