"While we are pleased with this momentum, we need to move more quickly," said a cautiously optimistic Mulligan, who is also the company's CFO and is temporarily filling in as chief executive while the company seeks a replacement for the ousted Gregg Steinhafel. "As a result, we have made changes to our management team and are investing additional resources to drive U.S. traffic and sales, improve our Canadian operations and advance our ongoing digital transformation. We have updated our 2014 earnings expectations to reflect the impact of these investments and believe that they position Target for accelerated profitable growth as a leading omnichannel retailer." U.S. sales for the quarter increased 0.2% to $16.7 billion from $16.6 billion last year, reflecting the contribution from new stores partially offset by a 0.3% decrease in comparable sales. First quarter gross margin rate was 29.5% compared with 30.7% in 2013, driven primarily by additional promotional markdowns this year.