Traders Buy Large Volume of Ross Stores Put Options (NASDAQ:ROST)

Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors acquired 6,107 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 93% compared to the average volume of 3,170 put options.

Institutional Trading of Ross Stores

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Ethic Inc. grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 4,847 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 17,090 shares during the period. National Pension Service lifted 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 purchasing an additional 754,816 shares during the period. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. bought a new stake in shares of Ross Stores during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $204,750,000. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Ross Stores by 99.5% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 14,745 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $2,656,000 after purchasing an additional 7,353 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on ROST. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $276.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ross Stores from $248.00 to $251.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.76.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ROST traded down $2.96 during trading on Monday, reaching $242.40. 372,679 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,688,888. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.86. Ross Stores has a 52-week low of $143.39 and a 52-week high of $257.00. The company has a 50-day moving average of $233.68 and a 200-day moving average of $220.42.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 21st. The apparel retailer reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.29. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 38.42% and a net margin of 9.74%.The company had revenue of $6.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.47 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. 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 forecast that Ross Stores will post 7.78 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.