In the face of tariffs and economic uncertainty, TJX maintained guidance for full-year sales growth, pretax profit margin and diluted earnings per share in reporting first-quarter financial results that topped expectations, including a solid gain in the company’s HomeGoods business.
Net income was $1.04 billion, or 92 cents per diluted share, versus $1.07 billion, or 93 cents per diluted share, in the year-before quarter.
TJX topped an analyst consensus estimate from Zacks Investment Research that called for earnings per share of 90 cents and revenues of $13.02 billion.
Company comparable sales were up 3% year over year, with Marmaxx, the division including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, up 2%, HomeGoods up 4%, TJX Canada up 5% and TJX International up 5%.
In a conference call, John Klinger, TJX senior executive vice president and CFO, said comps in apparel and home categories increased with home outperforming apparel.
Net sales were $13.11 billion versus $12.48 billion in the year–earlier quarter, the company reported.
For the fiscal year, TJX stated that it continues to expect consolidated comparable sales to gain 2% to 3% with pretax profit margin to fall in the range of 11.3% to 11.4%, down 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points versus the year-past 11.5%. At the same time, TJX expects full year Fiscal 2026 diluted earnings per share to be in the $4.34 to $4.43 range, up 2% to 4% versus the year-past $4.26.
In the conference call, Ernie Herrman, TJX president and CEO, said he didn’t anticipate tariffs would have a major impact on the home business. Even though a proportion of home products TJX carries come from China, the company has incorporated what seems to be the most likely tariff circumstances it will face into its expectations, Herrman said. Given the company deals with third-party vendors that who are conducting their own negotiations with China factories, TJX is in a flexible position as to sourcing across the home business, he said. Herrman added home product availability should be fine with the range and number of TJX vendors in the category, and he said he’s not worried about empty shelves or any significant shortage of goods.
In announcing the financial results, Herrman said, “I am very pleased with our first quarter performance. Overall comp sales increased 3%, at the high end of our plan, and both profitability and earnings per share were above our expectations. Our teams across the company delivered consumers exciting values on great brands and fashions and a treasure-hunt shopping experience, every day. All divisions, both in the U.S. and internationally, drove increases in comp sales and customer transactions, which underscores the strength of our value proposition. This also gives us confidence in our ability to gain market share across all of our geographies.”
The company’s second quarter, Herrman added, “is off to a strong start, and we are laser focused on executing all the key fundamentals of our offprice retail model. I am convinced that our broad assortments of great brands and fashions, at compelling prices, will continue to be a tremendous draw for shoppers seeking value. Further, I am confident that the strength, flexibility, and resiliency of our offprice business model will serve us well in today’s macro environment, as it has throughout our long, successful history. I am as confident as ever that we will bring our value proposition to even more customers around the world and keep growing our sales and profitability over the long term.”
