Finance & Capital Management

Atlanta — Consumer spending in the United States grew 4.2% year-over-year in May 2014, compared to April’s 4.1% year-over-year growth. According to Spend Trend analysis from First Data Corp., spending growth was driven by May’s warm weather, which specifically spurred spending on travel and home improvement.

A lot of change is taking place at Target these days, but one thing the company isn’t messing with is a generous dividend that has helped sustain the value of the stock price.

The Target board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 52 cents a share this week, a 21% increase from the 43 cents paid last quarter. Target is among an elite group of companies that has paid a dividend for 188 consecutive quarters since it became publicly held in October 1967.

The maker of DNA Energy Drink is eating its words after incorrectly announcing a distribution agreement between DNA Brands and Trenton Coca-Cola on Monday.

DNA’s president and CEO, Eric Fowler, said Wednesday that the announcement from earlier this week was incorrect and that there was no agreement for distribution between the bottling company and DNA. The announcement also quoted Chuck Jones, citing him as president of the bottling company even though he is not.

Vancouver, Canada — Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Chip Wilson announced that he voted against the re-election of Michael Casey and RoAnn Costin to the board of Lululemon Athletica. Wilson, who founded the company in 1998, had been living in Australia and was asked by the company to return and deal with a quality control issue that resulted in a product recall during 2013.

Brussels, Belgium — The European Union (E.U.) is investigating lucrative tax breaks individual member countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have been giving major global companies including Starbucks and Apple. Media reports indicate the E.U. is focusing on whether certain tax loopholes these countries have provided some corporations qualify as “state aid,” which is prohibited under E.U. bylaws.

New York — Target Corp. announced at its annual meeting on Wednesday that the company’s shareholders re-elected its entire 10-member board of directors. Shareholders also approved the company’s executive compensation plan.

In May, proxy firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended the removal of seven board members, accusing them of failing to protect Target from its massive data breach.

Amy Heidersbach, who has spent the last four years at eBay overseeing various marketing efforts, including Pay Pal, has joined customer experience management company Needle as SVP, chief marketing officer.

Heidersbach led PayPal’s $12.5 billion enterprise and retail solutions unit while at eBay and also was also on the executive team that founded X.commerce, the online auction house’s ecommerce platform division. Heidersbach brought X.commerce together with ecommerce platform Magento after it was acquired by eBay in 2011.

Outdoor retailer Sportsman’s Warehouse is off to a rough start as a newly minted public company, reporting an 18.1% decline in first quarter same store sales as firearms and ammunition sales evaporated.