A processing device determines difference error counts that are indicative of relative widths of valleys. Each of the valleys is located between a respective pair of programming distributions of a memory cell of the memory component. A program targeting operation is performed on the memory cell to calibrate one or more program verify (PV) targets associated with the programming distributions. To perform the program targeting operation, a rule from a set of rules is selected based on the difference error counts. The set of rules corresponds to an adjusting of a PV target of a programming distribution adjacent to an initial programming distribution. One or more program verify (PV) targets associated with the programming distributions are adjusted based on the selected rule.