Adding to my Consumer / Service holdings I picked up The TJX Companies (TJX) because of its consistent performance over the past 10 years and growth potential with the HomeGoods stores and expansion in Europe.
When looking at the balance sheets for the past 5 years I saw operating margins consistently over 10%, EPS growth of at least 15%, growing working capital, ROA over 15% with ROE between 40%-50% and low debt. In comparison with the other stocks I was evaluating, Estee Lauder (EL) had a higher P/E and Home Depot (HD) had lower operating margins so those remain on my watchlist.
In every investment book I've read they always say you can never "time" the market and this is one case where it hurts to follow that advice. I bought a few days before the earnings report around 58. Based on today's conference call sales were flat but they aren't changing their targets for next quarter so I'll await the next report before increasing my position.
