TJX
Bargain-hunting is alive and well
TJX just handed investors a pretty cheerful receipt. The off-price retailer beat Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations, posted stronger-than-expected comparable sales, and raised its full-year earnings outlook — the kind of trifecta that usually gets the stock moving, which it did, up almost 6% on the day.
The company earned $1.19 per share versus the $1.01 analysts were looking for, while revenue climbed 9% to $14.32 billion. That’s not exactly “please panic over recession” behavior. It’s more like: when shoppers feel squeezed, they still want a thrill, and TJX keeps supplying the treasure hunt.
The secret sauce: more sales, fatter margins
The real flex here wasn’t just the top-line beat. TJX said consolidated comparable sales rose 6%, with Marmaxx up 6%, HomeGoods up 9%, TJX Canada up 7%, and TJX International up 4%. In retail land, that’s the equivalent of your whole friend group showing up to brunch on time — rare, satisfying, and worth bragging about.
Margins helped tell the same story. Gross margin expanded to 31.3% from 29.5% a year ago, and pretax margin rose 170 basis points to 12%. In other words, TJX isn’t just moving more merchandise; it’s making a little extra profit gravy on top.
Management is leaning in
The company also sounded upbeat enough to keep buying back stock, raising planned fiscal 2027 repurchases to $2.75 billion to $3.0 billion. And it’s still opening stores, adding 48 in the quarter to bring the total to 5,262 locations.
For the year ahead, TJX lifted its GAAP earnings guidance to $5.08 to $5.15 per share from $4.93 to $5.02, which is a nice way of saying management sees the engine still humming. It also guided second-quarter earnings below the analyst whisper, but not by enough to spoil the party.
Big picture: in a world where consumers keep hunting for value, TJX is looking less like a discount chain and more like a well-oiled machine that benefits every time people get a little price-weary.