5 Best Department Store Stocks To Invest In

2. The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 62

The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX) is an off-price apparel and home fashions retailer operating in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. On February 28, The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX) announced that it plans to declare a quarterly dividend of $0.375 per share, reflecting a 13% increase from the previous dividend of $0.3325 per share. The expected dividend declaration is scheduled for April 2024, with payments due in June 2024. Additionally, the company announced a share repurchase plan of approximately $2 billion to $2.5 billion during the fiscal year ending February 1, 2025.

According to Insider Monkey’s fourth quarter database, 62 hedge funds held stakes in The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX), compared to 71 funds in the prior quarter. Alkeon Capital Management is the largest stakeholder of the company, with 4.86 million shares worth $456.3 million. 

Madison Investments U.S. Equity Strategy stated the following regarding The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:

“Whether it’s performance by market capitalization, sectors, or any other factor, stock markets are intrinsically cyclical. Some cycles are long-term, taking decades to unfold, and some are short-term, lasting months, weeks, or even days. Many are medium in length, lasting two, three, or several years. Most cycles occur because a trend often creates the seeds of its own reversal. We at Madison Investments are certain that market cycles will occur, but it doesn’t mean we can predict their timing or magnitude. We don’t think we can. This is perhaps a major difference between us and many other investors. Most investors believe it’s their job to time market cycles despite overwhelming evidence that it’s nearly impossible to do so with enough accuracy to make such an effort profitable over long periods. We avoid making calls about market cycles and spend zero minutes thinking about them, not because we don’t think they can be important, but because we think they’re inherently unpredictable in duration.

This mentality of our team is generally true for other kinds of cycles, such as macroeconomic, industry, or company-specific, but is a bit more nuanced for those. We make no explicit prediction about cycles on which we base a buy or sell decision. Still, we are acutely aware of the various cyclical forces at work, and depending on whether we think we have the ability to assess the length or intensity of such, we may incorporate them to various degrees.

Let’s use a few examples to illustrate our point. We’ve been invested in off-price retailer The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX) for just under ten years, having invested in 2014 in our Large Cap strategy. TJX is one of the most recession-resistant companies we own due to its perennial value proposition to customers; customers always like to save money, especially when economic times get tough. As a result, the company has had an exceedingly steady revenue and earning profile over the past several decades…” (Click here to read the full text)