Target's Security Breach Is Bigger Than Expected

Shares of retail-giant Target are down once again today after it announced that its credit card security breach is worse than originally expected. According to Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser, Target first announced that 40 million accounts had been hacked--today's announcement puts that closer to 70 million, though the focus has shifted to personal information like phone numbers and email addresses. That said, any way you look at it makes this announcement just more salt on Target's wounds.

When the breach was originally announced, Target lowered its guidance as a result. Jason thinks this won't be the end of it, though, and he expects some sort of class action litigation to come in. He also wouldn't be surprised to see shares of Target get hit pretty hard if and when the company accepts culpability and has to make payments to customers.

Overall Jason would stay away from Target for now. He likes the company's big brick and mortar presence, and believes consumers will forget about this over time. That said, Jason will want to see how this incident hit the company in its earnings call at the end of February before he makes any investment calls.