Sales at TJX rose by 16 percent in the fourth quarter, the MetroWest retailer reported on Wednesday, sending the company’s stock rising on the news.
Fourth-quarter sales hit $11 billion, while full-year sales rose by 8 percent to $35.9 billion.
TJX shares climbed from a close of $77.32 on Tuesday to $83.85 early Wednesday. Shares closed at $82.68, just nine cents shy of an all-time high for the company.
Wall Street’s reaction Wednesday was in sharp contrast to when stocks fell after TJX’s third-quarter earnings last fall. The company said then the period’s 6-percent sales increase didn’t meet its expectations.
Net income rose in the latest quarter and full-year for TJX, which has its headquarters in Framingham and Marlborough. For the fourth quarter, net income climbed by 29 percent to $877 million. For the full year, profitability rose by 13 percent to $2.6 billion.
TJX, which owns Marshalls, TJMaxx and HomeGoods stores, pushed its store count this year to a new high, surpassing 4,000 locations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. It launched a new home goods chain, HomeSense, which opened one of its first locations in Framingham last August.
