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Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST), headquartered in Dublin, California, operates off-price retail apparel and home fashion stores under the Ross Dress for Less and dd's DISCOUNTS brand names. Valued at $43.1 billion by market cap, ROST offers designer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions at discount prices.
Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as “large-cap stocks,” and ROST perfectly fits that description, with its market cap exceeding this mark, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the apparel retail industry.
Despite its notable strength, ROST slipped 19.4% from its 52-week high of $163.60, achieved on Aug. 23, 2024. Over the past three months, ROST stock gained 6.9%, underperforming the SPDR S&P Retail ETF’s (XRT) 13.1% rise during the same time frame.
In the longer term, shares of ROST dipped 12.8% on a YTD basis and fell 9.5% over the past 52 weeks, underperforming XRT’s YTD losses of 5.3% and marginal drop over the last year.
To confirm the bearish trend, ROST is trading below its 200-day moving average since early February, with some fluctuations. The stock has been trading below its 50-day moving average recently.
On May 22, ROST reported its Q1 results, and its shares closed down more than 9% in the following trading session. Its EPS of $1.47 surpassed Wall Street expectations of $1.43. The company’s revenue was $4.98 billion, topping Wall Street forecasts of $4.97 billion.
In the competitive arena of apparel retail, The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) has taken the lead over ROST, showing resilience with a 2.6% uptick on a YTD basis and 14.5% gains over the past 52 weeks.
Wall Street analysts are bullish on ROST’s prospects. The stock has a consensus “Strong Buy” rating from the 21 analysts covering it, and the mean price target of $154.74 suggests a potential upside of 17.4% from current price levels.
On the date of publication, Neha Panjwani did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
