TJX sales up 18%, led by a surging HomeGoods
The TJX Companies made a strong showing in the second quarter with sales and profits that best analysts’ estimates even as some of its international stores were temporarily closed due to the pandemic.
The parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods and other banners, reported net income of $785.7 million, or $0.64 per share, in the quarter ended July 31, compared to a loss of $214.2 million, or $0.18 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $0.59.
Net sales increased 18% to $12.08 billion, up from $6.67 billion last year, beating Street estimates of $11.00 billion. Total open-only comparative sales increased 20%, led by a 36% increase at HomeGoods. Same-store sales at Marmaxx (T.J. Maxx and Marshalls) rose 18%, and was also up 18% at TJX Canada. International comp sales rose 12%.
“I am extremely pleased with our overall open-only comp-store sales increase of 20% over fiscal 2020 and very strong bottom-line results, both of which were well above our plans for the second quarter,” said Ernie Herrman, CEO and president, TJX Companies. “The performance of our home businesses across all of our divisions continued to be phenomenal, and apparel continued to trend higher, with open-only comp sales increasing low-teens for the quarter.”
Herrman said that sales are very strong as the company starts the third quarter, with overall open-only comp-store sales up mid-teens.
“While the environment remains uncertain, particularly with the Delta variant, we are convinced that TJX is in a position of strength,” he added. “We see numerous opportunities to continue to gain market share and improve our profitability in the medium to longer term.”
Store Closures
TJX said its second-quarter results were negatively impacted by the temporary closure of some of its stores due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although the company’s stores in the U.S. were open for the entire second quarter, stores in Canada were closed for approximately 22% of the quarter, stores in Europe were closed for approximately 2% of the quarter, and stores in Australia were closed for about 18% of the quarter. In total
During the second quarter, the company increased its store count by 26 stores. As of July 31, 2021, TJX operated a total of 4,665 stores in nine countries and four e-commerce sites. These include 1,283 T.J. Maxx, 1,145 Marshalls, 846 HomeGoods, 52 Sierra, and 39 Homesense stores in the United States; 290 Winners, 147 HomeSense, and 105 Marshalls stores in Canada; 616 T.K. Maxx and 78 Homesense stores in Europe; and 64 T.K. Maxx stores in Australia.