TJX Posts Quarterly Earnings and Sales Beat

Core Insights - TJX Companies reported better-than-expected third-quarter financial results, with adjusted earnings per share at $1.28, surpassing the analyst consensus of $1.23, and revenue reaching $15.1 billion, exceeding expectations of $14.84 billion, marking a 7% increase year-over-year [1] Financial Performance - The company achieved a pretax profit margin of 12.7%, exceeding its forecast and expanding by 0.4 percentage points from the previous year [2] - Gross margin improved to 32.6%, up 1.0 percentage point year-over-year, driven by higher merchandise margins and improved expense leverage [2] Sales Performance - Comparable-store sales rose by 5%, significantly above the company's internal projections, with TJX Canada leading at 8%, followed by Marmaxx in the U.S. at 6%, HomeGoods at 5%, and TJX International at 3% [2] Shareholder Returns - The company returned $1.1 billion to shareholders during the quarter, which included $594 million for repurchasing 4.2 million shares and $472 million in dividend payments [3] Future Outlook - TJX maintained its full-year comparable sales growth target of 4% and raised its pretax profit margin forecast to 11.6% [3] - For the fourth quarter, the retailer projected comparable sales growth of 2% to 3% and EPS of $1.33 to $1.36, slightly below the analyst expectation of $1.37 [3]