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Target Loses Nearly $15B in Market Value Amid Backlash Against Pride Merch

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June 6, 2023

Target's market value continues to plummet after its LGBTQ Pride collection sparked nationwide backlash. Since releasing its "tuck-friendly" children's swimsuits, the embattled retailer has lost nearly $15 billion in market capitalization.

Target's shares dropped for eight straight sessions, "the stock's longest losing streak since November 2018," according to the New York Post. Target's market value is down 19 percent since the boycott began on May 18.

Target is yet another company whose woke politics have cost them. Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light sales have dropped more than 25 percent since the brand launched an ad campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on April 1.

These companies' willingness to nosedive into areas controversial enough to impact their shareholders has corporate boards and investors scratching their heads.

"On one hand, companies want to show their support of diversity in all the mandates that society is discussing openly," Shark Tank's star investor Kevin O'Leary told Fox News Monday. "On the other hand, ... an investor and those that are retired, for example, that own the S&P 500 or own Target stock, are concerned that maybe they're losing their way in terms of what the prime objective is: your customers, your employees, and your shareholders."

"If you start to get too distant or too far away from the primary mandate," he continued, "the market has proven itself to really, really punish you. And it's woken up all kinds of boards."