TJX Q4 Revenues Beat View; Hikes Dividend, Approves Share Buyback - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Off-price retailer TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) on Wednesday reported a 4 percent decrease in profit for the fourth quarter from last year despite higher sales. However, revenue for the quarter beat analysts' expectations.

TJX also said it plans to increase the quarterly dividend by 18 percent and that its board approved a new stock repurchase program for up to an additional $1.5 billion of common stock. The company plans to repurchase about $1.75 billion to $2.25 billion of TJX stock during the fiscal year ending February 1, 2020. The company's shares are rising more than 1 percent in pre-market activity.

TJX Companies' fourth-quarter net income declined to $841.54 million or $0.68 per share from $877.28 million or $0.69 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings were $0.59 per share, compared to $0.59 per share in the year-ago period. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.68 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales grew 2 percent to $11.13 from $10.96 billion in the same quarter last year and beat analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $11.02 billion.

Consolidated comparable store sales rose 6 percent, compared to an increase of 4 percent in the same period last year. The growth in comparable sales was driven by customer traffic increases between 4 percent and 7 percent at all the major divisions.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2020, TJX Companies forecast earnings in a range of $0.53 to $0.54 per share, based upon estimated consolidated comparable store sales growth of 3 percent to 4 percent. Analysts expect the company to earn $0.58 per share for the quarter.

The company expects the combination of incremental freight costs, store wage increases, and foreign currency to negatively impact first-quarter earnings per share growth by about 7 percent.

For the 52-week fiscal year ending February 1, 2020, TJX expects reported earnings of $2.55 to $2.60 per share, based upon estimated consolidated comparable store sales growth of 2 percent to 3 percent. The Street expects the company to earn $2.60 per share for the year.

TJX intends to increase the regular quarterly dividend on its common stock to be declared in April 2019 and payable in June 2019 to $0.23 per share, subject to the approval of its board of directors. This would represent an 18 percent increase in the current per share dividend.

With $1.7 billion remaining at Fiscal 2019 year-end under the company's stock repurchase programs, TJX's board of directors approved a new stock repurchase program that authorizes the repurchase of up to an additional $1.5 billion of TJX common stock from time to time.