Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president, and CEO of Target Corporation, said in a statement that the company is “well-positioned for the fourth quarter”-and it expects same-store sales to outperform all other quarters over the past three years.

Minneapolis-based Target on Wednesday announced third-quarter earnings of $535 million, or 74 cents per share-up nearly 30 percent from $436 million, or 58 cents per share, during the same period last year. The results beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who anticipated earnings of 68 cents per share.

Steinhafel said that the sales will be driven in part by holiday shopping and customers using the retailer's REDCard rewards program, which allows them to save 5 percent on purchases.

For its retail segment, Target's third-quarter sales increased 3 percent to $15.2 billion-growth that the company attributes to a 1.6 percent increase in same-store sales combined with the contribution of new stores.

Shares of Target's stock were trading up about 3.9 percent to $55.62 during Wednesday afternoon trading.

Earlier this week, Target announced that it would implement the Shopkick mobile application at 242 of its stores-including those in Minneapolis. The application allows customers to receive points and other rewards, including mobile coupons, simply by entering the store.

Target-which operates both retail and credit card segments-serves guests at 1,752 stores in 49 states across the country and at Target.com. It is Minnesota's second-largest public company based on revenue, which totaled $65.4 billion in its most recently completed fiscal year.