TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE:TJX ) early Wednesday [Feb 22, 2017 | 8:44am ] posted market-beating fourth quarter earnings results, but offered a tepid outlook for 2017 amid higher wages to its employees.

Written by StockNews.com

The Framingham, MA-based discount apparel and home goods retailer reported Q4 EPS of $1.03, which was $0.03 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.00.

Revenues rose 6% from last year to $9.5 billion, also topping analysts’ $9.44 billion view.

The parent company of TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, and Marshall’s off-price chains said that consolidated comparable store sales in Q4 rose 3%, down from last year’s 6% increase, but ahead of its own projections of 1% to 2% growth. Comparable sales, also known as comps, are an important metric used to measure a retailer’s health.

Looking ahead, TJX forecast Q1 EPS of $0.76 to $0.78, which could miss Wall Street’s $0.81 estimate. For the full fiscal year 2018, it sees EPS of $3.69 to $3.78, also below analysts’ outlook of $3.79.

TJX noted the tepid EPS outlook was mostly due to wage increases, which will negatively impact EPS growth by around 2%.

Additionally, the company said it would buy back $1.3 to $1.8 billion of its own stock in the current fiscal year. It also said it would boost its quarterly dividend payout by 20%, to $0.3125 per share.

The company commented via press release:

“Looking ahead, we see many opportunities to continue our successful growth and are pursuing many initiatives to keep driving shoppers to our stores. We are making strategic investments in our infrastructure, stores, and new seeds to strengthen our leadership positions and allow us to capture additional market share in the U.S. and internationally. Our management team is laser focused on achieving our 2017 plans and, as always, passionate about surpassing them. We have a clear, long-term vision for growth and are confident that we have the right strategy, culture and people in place as we continue to grow TJX as the only major international off-price retailer in the world!”

...Year-to-date, TJX has gained 1.16%, versus a 5.58% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

TJX currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of B (Buy), and is ranked #5 of 67 stocks in the Fashion & Luxury category.