Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST Stock Position Reduced by Stephens Investment Management Group LLC

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC lessened its stake in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 1.6% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 155,535 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after selling 2,530 shares during the quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $33,694,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ethic Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ross Stores by 25.6% during the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 23,772 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $4,282,000 after purchasing an additional 4,847 shares in the last quarter. Financial Planning Hawaii Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ross Stores during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,542,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Ross Stores by 61.1% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 45,043 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $8,114,000 after buying an additional 17,090 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Ross Stores by 138.4% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,300,056 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $234,192,000 after buying an additional 754,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Ross Stores by 99.5% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 14,745 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $2,656,000 after buying an additional 7,353 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ROST shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ross Stores from $248.00 to $251.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Monday, April 27th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Ross Stores from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $233.18.

Ross Stores Price Performance

Ross Stores stock opened at $213.43 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 $126.32 and a fifty-two week high of $242.81. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $225.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $209.10. The firm has a market cap of $68.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.87.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The apparel retailer reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $6.01 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.47 earnings per share. 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. As a group, analysts forecast that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 7.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Ross Stores Announces Dividend

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

Ross Stores Profile

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.