TJX Beats Q2 Views, Shares Rise

Shares of TJX Companies Inc TJX surged around 4 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its fiscal second quarter and raised its profit forecast for the full year. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company posted quarterly earnings of $549.3 million, or $0.80 per share, compared to $517.6 million, or $0.73 per share, in the year-ago period. Its sales climbed to $7.36 billion from $6.92 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.76 per share on revenue of $7.25 billion. The average estimate among 28 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.77 per share and revenue of $7.28 billion. Same-store sales climbed 6 percent in the quarter. Its gross profit margin rose 0.5 percentage points to 29.1 percent. As of August 1, 2015, total inventories were $3.7 billion, versus $3.4 billion at the end of the year-ago quarter. During the second quarter, TJX repurchased a total of $440 million of stock. Carol Meyrowitz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The TJX Companies, Inc., said, "We are extremely pleased that our momentum continued in the second quarter. Our 6% consolidated comparable store sales growth and 7% adjusted EPS growth significantly exceeded our expectations. It was great to see that comp sales were entirely driven by customer traffic – our fifth consecutive quarter of sequential traffic improvement – and that we had strong sales across all of our divisions. Our flexible model and ability to offer an eclectic, exciting merchandise mix at outstanding values continues to resonate with consumers in all of our geographies. We were also very pleased with our solid merchandise margins." TJX now expects full-year earnings of $3.24 to $3.28 per share, versus its earlier forecast of $3.21 to $3.27 per share. For the third quarter, the company projects earnings of $0.80 to $0.82 per share. TJX shares gained 3.90 percent to $74.40 in pre-market trading.