NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Target Corp. on Thursday posted a third-quarter profit that rose from a year ago, driven by solid sales at its namesake discount stores.

The No. 2 discount chain after Wal-Mart reported net income of $537 million, or 60 cents a share, for the quarter, up from $302 million, or 33 cents a share, a year ago.

The results included a gain of $203 million, or 23 cents a share, related to the sale of the Mervyn's department store chain.

It was not immediately clear how the results compared to Wall Street forecasts. The company said it earned 37 cents a share from continuing operations, but said those results were reduced by a pre-tax adjustment for accounting for store leases.

Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call had expected the retailer to earn 38 cents a share in the quarter.

Shares of Target (Research) slipped 12 cents to $50.76 in before-hours trading on INET after edging lower Wednesday.

Sales rose 11 percent to $10.9 billion from $9.8 billion, with sales at stores open at least a year rising 4.5 percent.