The TJX Companies

The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX - Snapshot Report) saw its shares surge after announcing solid June sales. Total sales of $1.84 billion were up 4% year-over-year. Consolidated comparable store sales also jumped 4%.

Company Description

The TJX Companies is a discount retailer, selling apparel and home fashions worldwide. The Company operates 882 T.J. Maxx, 811 Marshalls, 323 HomeGoods, and 141 A.J. Wright stores in the United States. In Canada, The TJX Companies operates 203 Winners, 75 HomeSense and 3 STYLESENSE stores, and in Europe, 243 T.K. Maxx and 8 HomeSense stores.

Stellar Sales and Higher Estimates

The company, which more than doubled the market’s return over the past 3 months, recently announced that June’s total sales of $1.84 billion were up 4% year-over-year. Consolidated comparable store sales also jumped 4%.

Management said there were strong increases in customer traffic across TJX’s divisions as the extreme values TJX offer customers continue to resonate despite the challenging economic environment.

The strong sales also led to an earnings guidance increase. The TJX Companies now sees second-quarter earnings ranging from 56 to 59 cents per share.

Wall Street is in agreement as evidenced by the 12 out of 13 covering analysts, who boosted the Zacks Consensus Estimate from 49 cents to 59 cents over the past month.

Results for the second quarter are scheduled for release on 18.

For the year, the Zacks Consensus Estimate climbed from last month’s $2.17 peer share to $2.32.

Strong Fundamentals

TJX’s return on equity (ROE) of 41% more than doubles the industry average of 16%. The company’s net profit margin of 5% tops the industry average of 3%. The Growth and Income pick also offers an industry-leading dividend yield of 1.3%.