Sit Investment Associates Inc. Sells 8,920 Shares of The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX)

Sit Investment Associates Inc. cut its stake in The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 168,870 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailer’s stock after selling 8,920 shares during the period. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in TJX Companies were worth $20,401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TJX Companies by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,314,635 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailer’s stock worth $11,998,201,000 after acquiring an additional 578,948 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of TJX Companies by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,322,579 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailer’s stock worth $2,930,965,000 after buying an additional 464,995 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of TJX Companies during the fourth quarter worth $1,670,565,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 9.9% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,271,499 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailer’s stock valued at $837,951,000 after purchasing an additional 657,529 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in TJX Companies by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,031,237 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailer’s stock worth $850,428,000 after buying an additional 827,103 shares during the period. 91.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on TJX shares. Citigroup raised TJX Companies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group increased their price target on TJX Companies from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of TJX Companies from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of TJX Companies from $136.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of TJX Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.76.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TJX Companies news, Director Alan M. Bennett sold 8,000 shares of TJX Companies stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.53, for a total transaction of $988,240.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ernie Herrman sold 23,428 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $2,882,346.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 484,189 shares in the company, valued at $59,569,772.67. This represents a 4.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

TJX Companies Stock Performance

Shares of TJX opened at $121.92 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $137.06 billion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.96. The TJX Companies, Inc. has a 12 month low of $92.35 and a 12 month high of $128.33. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $121.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.37.

TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The apparel and home fashions retailer reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.07. TJX Companies had a return on equity of 61.82% and a net margin of 8.63%. The company had revenue of $16.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.24 billion. Equities research analysts predict that The TJX Companies, Inc. will post 4.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TJX Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.425 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This is a boost from TJX Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. TJX Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.21%.

About TJX Companies

The TJX Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an off-price apparel and home fashions retailer in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. It operates through four segments: Marmaxx, HomeGoods, TJX Canada, and TJX International. The company sells family apparel, including footwear and accessories; home fashions, such as home basics, furniture, rugs, lighting products, giftware, soft home products, decorative accessories, tabletop, and cookware, as well as expanded pet, and gourmet food departments; jewelry and accessories; and other merchandise.