Ross Stores Earned $1.20 per Share

Ross Stores‘s (ROST) fiscal Q4 earnings are out. The deep discounter earned $1.20 per share for its fiscal Q4. That’s the big holiday shopping season. The company had given guidance of $1.09 to $1.14 per share. Sales for Q4 were $4.11 billion which topped estimates of $4.05 billion. Comp stores sales were 4% whereas the Street was expecting 2.3%.

As usual, the company gave weak guidance. Ross sees Q1 earnings of $1.05 to $1.11 per share. The Street was at $1.18.

Looking ahead, Ms. Rentler said, “While we hope to do better, we continue to take a prudent approach to forecasting our business for 2019. Although we remain favorably positioned as an off-price retailer, we face our own difficult sales and earnings comparisons, a very competitive retail landscape, and an uncertain macro-economic and political environment.”

They always say that. Ross sees full-years of $4.30 to $4.50 per share. Wall Street had been expecting $4.51 per share.

Ross is authorizing a $2.55 billion share buyback. If that’s not enough, Ross is raising its dividend. The quarterly payout will rise 13.3% from 22.5 cents to 25.5 cents per share. The new dividend is payable on March 29 to stockholders of record as of March 18.

Posted by on March 5th, 2019 at 4:12 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.