TJX 2Q Same-Store Sales Beat Estimates

TJX Cos, the owner of off-price retailers TJ Maxx and Marshalls, reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly comparable store sales as more bargain-hungry shoppers visited its outlets.

The company's shares rose 4.2 percent to $74.60 in premarket trading on Tuesday.

Sales at stores open for more than a year rose 6 percent in the second quarter ended Aug. 1, handily beating the 3 percent rise analysts polled by research firm Consensus Metrix had expected.

"It was great to see that comp sales were entirely driven by customer traffic - our fifth consecutive quarter of sequential traffic improvement," CEO Carol Meyrowitz said in a statement.

Off-price retailers offer labels such as Dolce and Gabbana or Juicy Couture at low prices. Often, this is off-season merchandise sourced from manufacturers or department store operators.

TJX said its net income rose to $549.3 million, or 80 cents per share, from $517.6 million, or 73 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $7.36 billion from $6.92 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 76 cents per share on revenue of $7.25 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

TJX also raised its full-year profit forecast to $3.24-$3.28 per share from $3.21-$3.27. The company had earlier raised its full-year forecast in May.

Up to Monday's close of $71.61, the stock had risen about 4 percent this year.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Ramkumar Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)