Earnings soar at TJX
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — The TJX companies reported that sales for the 14-week fourth quarter ended Feb. 2 were $7.7 billion, a 15% increase over the prior year. Consolidated comparable-store sales for the quarter on a 13-week basis increased 4% over the prior year’s 7% increase.
Net income for the 14-week fourth quarter was $605 million and diluted earnings per share were 82 cents, a 32% increase over last year’s 62 cents.
Net sales for the 53-week fiscal year were $25.9 billion, a 12% increase over last year. Consolidated comparable-store sales for the year on a 52-week basis increased 7% over the prior year’s 4% increase.
Net income for the 53-week fiscal year was $1.9 billion and diluted earnings per share were $2.55 compared to $1.93 last year.
Carol Meyrowitz, CEO of The TJX Companies Inc., stated, “The year 2012 was another great year for TJX on top of many great years! We achieved adjusted EPS growth of 28% on sales of nearly $26 billion and consolidated comp store sales growth of 7%, marking the fourth consecutive year of very strong sales and double-digit EPS increases. Customer traffic was up across all of our divisions as our off-price shopping experience continued to resonate with customers, even with the growth in online shopping in the retail industry. Marmaxx, our largest division, continues to be very powerful with excellent performance of new T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores as we expand into more rural markets as well as major cities. HomeGoods has taken hold as a shopping destination for exciting, quality product from around the world. TJX Canada delivered very strong results with Marshalls in Canada outperforming our expectations, and TJX Europe has regained its momentum and opens up enormous growth opportunity. We believe this all speaks to the staying power of our value proposition of extreme values on exciting fashions and brands. As large as we are, we have enormous store growth potential and are excited about the opportunity to leverage the success of our brick-and-mortar business with e-commerce over time. Our management team is focused on our four powerful divisions, and I am as confident as ever in our ability to continue driving profitable sales growth for many years to come. We are well on the road to being a $40 billion-plus company!”
TJX also announced that beginning with the fiscal 2014 second quarter, it will no longer report monthly sales, consistent with the retail industry trend.