UPDATE: TJX Posts Upbeat Q4 Earnings, But Issues Weak Outlook

Shares of

declined over 2% in pre-market trading, despite the company reporting better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. The company's weak profit forecast exerted pressure on the shares The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company posted quarterly earnings of $648.2 million, or $0.93 per share, compared to $582.3 million, or $0.81 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Its revenue gained 6% to $8.3 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.90 per share on revenue of $8.26 billion. Its same-store sales rose 4% in the quarter. The gross profit margin rose 0.6 percentage points to 28.2%. As of January 31, 2015, total inventories were $3.2 billion, up from $3.0 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year. TJX also lifted its quarterly dividend by 20% to $0.21 per share. The company announced its plans to buy back $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion in shares this fiscal year. Carol Meyrowitz, Chief Executive Officer of The TJX Companies, Inc. said, "As always, we're pursuing many initiatives to drive sales and customer traffic, and we have numerous growth vehicles that are working well. In 2015, we are taking a prudent approach to planning our earnings per share growth. We are continuing to plan comp sales increases conservatively while we simultaneously strive to surpass our goals." TJX projects Q1 earnings of $0.64 to $0.66 per share and earnings of $3.17 to $3.25 per share for the full year. Analysts had expected earnings of $0.72 per share for the first quarter and $3.50 per share for the full year. TJX shares fell 2.47% to $65.50 in pre-market trading.