TJX — Fiscal Q2 2026 Financial Report Analysis

Overview: tariff refunds lift the headline, HomeGoods carries the underlying growth

TJX (owner of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Winners and TK Maxx) reported its second quarter of fiscal 2027, which is TJX's own label for the year ending January 30, 2027. The quarter covers the 13 weeks from May 3 to August 1, 2026, compared with the 13 weeks ended August 2, 2025 (Q2 fiscal 2026).

Net sales rose 5% to $15.18 billion, and diluted earnings per share (EPS: profit divided across every share, including shares that stock options could create) jumped 24% to $1.36. A large part of that profit jump is a one-off. In February 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and in this quarter TJX received $331 million in refunds of tariffs it had already paid. Because of the windfall, TJX set aside $112 million of extra year-end bonuses for employees, which leaves a net pre-tax benefit of $219 million, or $0.14 per share. Without it, adjusted EPS was $1.22, up 11%. That is still a solid quarter and above management's own plan, but it is not the 24% the headline suggests.

Key figures

Comparable sales ("comp sales") measure sales at stores and websites open long enough to compare with last year, so they show demand growth that doesn't come from opening new stores. Gross margin is the share of sales left after paying for the merchandise plus buying and store-occupancy costs. TJX doesn't report an "operating income" line, so the operating margin row is our calculation from its income statement. The company's own headline measure is pre-tax profit margin, which also includes $31 million of net interest income.

What drove the margin: mostly the refund, partly better buying

Gross margin rose 2.7 points to 33.4%. By TJX's own breakdown, 2.0 points of that was the net tariff refund. The remaining 0.7 points came from "favorable merchandise margin due to higher markon," meaning TJX bought goods more cheaply relative to the prices it sold them at.

Running costs went the other way. Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A: store wages, head office, marketing) rose from 19.5% to 20.3% of sales. Of that increase, 0.6 points was the refund-related bonus accrual and 0.2 points was "incremental store wage and payroll costs." With the refund effects removed from both lines, the pre-tax margin was 11.9%, up 0.5 points from 11.4%. That is a real improvement, but a modest one.

The tax rate edged up to 24.7% from 24.5%. The diluted share count fell to 1,117 million from 1,128 million a year earlier, as TJX kept buying back stock (5.1 million shares for $798 million in the quarter).

Segments: HomeGoods and the international businesses outran the core

Segment profit is each division's profit before head-office costs and interest. "Constant currency" means growth restated at last year's exchange rates, which removes the effect of a stronger or weaker U.S. dollar.

• Marmaxx, TJX's largest division (60% of sales), was the soft spot. Comp sales grew only 1%. The 10-Q says the gain came from "a higher average basket, partially offset by a decrease in customer transactions": fewer shoppers, each spending more. CEO Ernie Herrman said Marmaxx sales "were below our expectations." Excluding the refund, its margin was flat at 14.2%. Better markon was offset by "expense deleverage on lower comp sales" (fixed costs spread over slower sales) and higher store wages.
• HomeGoods did the heavy lifting. Comp sales rose 7%, and even with the refund removed, segment margin climbed from 10.0% to 12.4%. The filing credits better markon, "lower freight costs," "lower supply chain and store costs," and spreading fixed costs over higher sales, partly offset by more markdowns (price cuts to clear stock).
• Canada and International both grew comps 6% to 7% on more transactions and bigger baskets. TJX International's margin gain also got help from "the positive impact of transactional foreign exchange on the cost of merchandise," meaning currency moves made imported goods cheaper. Part of that improvement is therefore not purely operational.

Cash, inventory and store growth

TJX generated $2.2 billion of operating cash flow in the quarter and ended it with $6.0 billion of cash. It returned $1.3 billion to shareholders ($798 million in buybacks, $529 million in dividends). Inventory was $7.9 billion against $7.4 billion a year earlier, but only 2% higher per store, which fits its off-price model of buying opportunistically when brands have excess stock.

Management also said it will speed up store openings to about 4% a year starting in fiscal 2028, and raised its long-term global target by 500 stores to 7,500 (300 more for Marmaxx, 200 more for HomeGoods), up from 5,285 today.

Takeaway: Without the one-off tariff refund, TJX's quarter is an 11% EPS gain on a 0.5-point margin improvement. That is respectable, but the growth is coming from HomeGoods and the overseas divisions, while Marmaxx (60% of sales) managed only a 1% comp with fewer customer transactions. How Marmaxx does this fall matters more to the full-year result than the refund does.

Outlook

Management raised its full-year profit guidance but left the sales outlook unchanged:

• Q3 fiscal 2027 (August to October 2026): comp sales +2% to +3%. Diluted EPS $1.36 to $1.38, or $1.30 to $1.32 excluding an expected further $0.06 net refund benefit.
• Full fiscal 2027: comp sales still +3% to +4%. Pre-tax margin raised to 12.3% to 12.4% (12.0% to 12.1% adjusted). Diluted EPS raised to $5.31 to $5.36, or $5.15 to $5.20 excluding an expected $0.16 total refund benefit.
• Planned buybacks stay at $2.75 to $3.0 billion for the year. TJX estimates it paid about $490 million of IEEPA tariffs in total. It has not booked any receivable for refunds beyond the $331 million already received, and says the amount and timing of further refunds "remain uncertain."

Our read: Keeping full-year comp guidance at +3% to +4% after a first half of +5% implies management expects a slower second half, and the Q3 range of +2% to +3% is below Q2's +4%. The CEO said Q3 was "off to a strong start" with "improvement at our Marmaxx division." That is the claim to test when Q3 results arrive in November. The HomeGoods margin recovery looks like the most durable part of this report, because it rests on lower freight, supply-chain and store costs rather than on the refund. Anyone comparing next year's earnings with this year's should remember that the refund benefit (about $0.16 of full-year EPS by TJX's own estimate) won't repeat.

Sources: TJX Form 10-Q for the quarter ended August 1, 2026 (filed August 28, 2026) and the Q2 FY27 earnings release (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, August 19, 2026).