diff --git a/src/php/tests/generated_code/AbstractGeneratedCodeTest.php b/src/php/tests/generated_code/AbstractGeneratedCodeTest.php
index 287621d9303..a368dd4ee02 100644
--- a/src/php/tests/generated_code/AbstractGeneratedCodeTest.php
+++ b/src/php/tests/generated_code/AbstractGeneratedCodeTest.php
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ abstract class AbstractGeneratedCodeTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
     $this->assertTrue(self::$client->waitForReady(250000));
   }
 
+  public function testGetTarget() {
+    $this->assertTrue(is_string(self::$client->getTarget()));
+  }
+
   public function testSimpleRequest() {
     $div_arg = new math\DivArgs();
     $div_arg->setDividend(7);
diff --git a/src/php/tests/interop/interop_client.php b/src/php/tests/interop/interop_client.php
index 376d306da03..ed7b073f8f6 100755
--- a/src/php/tests/interop/interop_client.php
+++ b/src/php/tests/interop/interop_client.php
@@ -332,11 +332,7 @@ if (in_array($args['test_case'], array(
   $opts['update_metadata'] = $auth->getUpdateMetadataFunc();
 }
 
-$internal_stub = new Grpc\BaseStub($server_address, $opts);
-hardAssert(is_string($internal_stub->getTarget()),
-           'Unexpected target URI value');
-
-$stub = new grpc\testing\TestServiceClient($internal_stub);
+$stub = new grpc\testing\TestServiceClient($server_address, $opts);
 
 echo "Connecting to $server_address\n";
 echo "Running test case $args[test_case]\n";