FRAMINGHAM – TJX Companies, owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, and Big Lots Inc., the largest U.S. retailer of discontinued and overstocked goods, said profits this quarter may decline because sales growth is slowing.
TJX forecast a first-quarter profit of as much as 23 cents a share as sales at stores open at least a year fall 1 percent. A year earlier the company had earnings of 27 cents a share. Big Lots said quarterly profit will be 7 to 11 cents a share, compared with 11 cents a year ago.
Shoppers have been trimming spending at retailers including TJX and Big Lots because of concerns about job cuts and a slow economy. Sales at Big Lots and other merchants also fell in the U.S. Northeast this month because of snowstorms and bad weather.
“This has been very abnormal weather compared to what we had last year,” Big Lots CEO Michael Potter said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. (Bloomberg News)
Fidelity valued at about
$20 billion, WSJ says
BOSTON – Fidelity Investments, the largest U.S. mutual fund company, is worth as much as $20 billion, down from as much as $35 billion in 1999, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified analysts.
The valuation places Fidelity above Wall Street rivals Charles Schwab Corp. and below that of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., the paper said.
Fidelity said its assets under management fell 12 percent as the third year of falling share prices led investors to seek shelter in bond funds. Its net income declined 39 percent to $8.08 billion in 2002, while revenue dropped 8.9 percent to $8.94 billion.
The Boston-based company, which manages more than 150 funds, also said it
would pay $2.17 billion to “several hundred” former employees who owned shares
in the closely held firm. Several top officers retired last year, including
James Curvey, former vice chairman. (Bloomberg News)
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