Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST Stock Position Raised by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 8.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 648,794 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 50,889 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $140,548,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,911,953 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $2,506,099,000 after purchasing an additional 99,975 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Ross Stores by 20.9% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,582,401 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,222,523,000 after buying an additional 1,657,008 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,436,788 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $979,384,000 after buying an additional 79,519 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ross Stores during the fourth quarter valued at $868,360,000. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP raised its position in Ross Stores by 9.9% during the second quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 4,747,639 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $605,704,000 after buying an additional 426,370 shares during the period. 86.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ROST. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Monday, April 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $270.00 target price on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Telsey Advisory Group increased their price target on shares of Ross Stores from $240.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Ross Stores from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $245.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ross Stores currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.18.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

Shares of ROST stock opened at $233.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Ross Stores, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.48 and a fifty-two week high of $242.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $224.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $211.92. The firm has a market cap of $74.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.61, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.87.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The apparel retailer reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $6.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.64 billion. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 38.42% and a net margin of 9.74%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.47 EPS. Ross Stores has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.500-7.740 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.850-1.930 EPS. Analysts predict that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 7.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Ross Stores’s payout ratio is 24.86%.

About Ross Stores

Ross Stores, Inc (NASDAQ: ROST) is an American off‑price retailer headquartered in Dublin, California, that operates the Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS store formats. The company sells a broad assortment of apparel, footwear, home fashions, accessories and other soft goods, positioning itself as a value-oriented destination for brand‑name and fashion merchandise at reduced prices.

Ross’s business model centers on opportunistic buying of excess inventory, closeouts, cancelled orders and overstocks from manufacturers, department stores and other suppliers.