TJX — the owner of the discount department chains T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods — was one of the few retailers coming out of this earnings season with something to crow about. The chain pulled in higher than expected sales last quarter as the holiday season apparently brought out the bargain hunting Maxinista in many.
In fact, TJX managed to clear more than one record this holiday quarter: the chain surpassed $30 billion in annual sales and it also brought in its 20th straight year of increases in comparable store sales and earnings per share.
TJX posted a 6.4 percent jump in annual sales to $30.94 billion, while net income hit $2.27 billion, and earnings per share were up 5 percent over the prior year.
Same store sales — an all important retail metric — almost doubled analyst forecasts and clocked in at 5 percent.
“Our 2015 performance once again demonstrates the power of our differentiated, flexible business model to succeed across many different geographic, economic and retail environments,” said Ernie Herrman, who took over as CEO on Jan. 31.
“They just appear to be very well-positioned for, yet again, continued outsized market share gains,” Bob Drbul, managing director of Nomura Securities, told The Boston Herald. “The most impressive piece … was continued trafficking in a retail environment where we just continue to hear about the malaise of traffic given the rise of online (retail).”