Target Corp. execs are playing the long game.

Speaking at the company’s annual investor meeting in New York City on Tuesday morning, the retailer’s leaders emphasized long-term gains over short-term pains, and maintained that the company is on track for a prosperous future.

With a sizable increase in profit and a modest uptick in revenue in the fourth quarter, Target had plenty to celebrate at Tuesday’s meeting, though those gains were accompanied by a few less flattering metrics. The retailer on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.38 billion, up nearly 60% year over year. The company’s net earnings beat Wall Street expectations, the Associated Press and CNBC reported.

Target’s total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $31.9 billion, a 1.7% increase over the same quarter in the prior year.

For the full year, Target’s net income increased 48.8% to $4.138 billion, though total year-end revenue slipped 1.6% to $107.4 billion.

Meanwhile, comparable sales – a closely watched metric in the retail industry that compares year-over-year revenue at stores and on digital channels operating for at least 12 months – declined 4.4%. That marked the third quarter in a row of declining comp sales.

Still, CEO and chairman Brian Cornell sounded an optimistic note at Tuesday’s meeting and encouraged investors to think in the long term. “Our session today will focus squarely on the long-term thinking that has driven top and bottom line growth over the last decade, and positions us for continued growth in the years ahead,” he told attendees.

Looking ahead, Cornell intends to double down on brick-and-mortar retail stores, with plans to open more than 300 new ones over the next decade. The company already has nearly 2,000 stores across the country. Cornell noted that when he first joined Target back in 2014, the company had a footprint of about 1,800 stores.

“If you think store shopping will wind down any time in the next decade, we’ll politely disagree on that point again,” the CEO said.

The company is also ripping a page out of Amazon’s playbook in hopes of boosting revenue. Cornell said the company’s new Target Circle 360 yearly membership program is slated to launch next month. Customers will pay a yearly fee – currently set at a rate of $49 for Target credit cardholders – for a slew of perks, such as free same-day delivery for certain orders.

Yet, in the near term, Target execs sought to temper expectations for the year ahead.

“On the top line, we’re still planning cautiously, given the consumer spending patterns we’ve seen for two full years now,” said Michael Fiddelke, who’s serving as both chief operating officer and chief financial officer for now. “More specifically, on the discretionary side our business, even as we’ve seen improving trends over the last two quarters, overall demand remains soft as spending patterns continue to normalize from pandemic peaks.”

Execs expect comp sales to decline yet again in 2024, in the range of about 3% to 5%.

Over the next decade, though, Fiddelke said he expects to see the retailer’s total revenue increase by an average rate of roughly 4% per year.

Meanwhile, Fiddelke reported “encouraging trends” in Target’s efforts to reduce shrink, or inventory lost due to theft or other causes. He said that Target’s shrink costs last year ballooned by more than $500 million compared to 2022. But things appear to be moving in the right direction due to “actions we’ve taken and the community efforts we’re seeing across the country.” That’s included ramping up security efforts and putting some items behind lock and key in stores. He’s expecting overall shrink to remain flat going into 2024.

Cornell added that Target is seeing “really solid progress” in curtailing shrink, and also “greater awareness at the national, state, and local level.”