Earnest Partners LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

Earnest Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 506,803 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after selling 9,979 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC owned 0.16% of Ross Stores worth $77,232,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,182,660 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $4,998,924,000 after acquiring an additional 5,060,954 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ross Stores by 0.4% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,974,551 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,782,873,000 after purchasing an additional 61,168 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in Ross Stores by 0.5% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 10,268,700 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,310,081,000 after purchasing an additional 51,765 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Ross Stores by 1.9% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,762,583 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,487,720,000 after purchasing an additional 180,182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP boosted 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 worth $605,704,000 after purchasing an additional 426,370 shares in the last quarter. 86.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

Ross Stores stock opened at $206.28 on Monday. Ross Stores, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.36 and a fifty-two week high of $216.80. The company has a market capitalization of $66.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.21, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $196.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.58.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 3rd. The apparel retailer reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 36.70% and a net margin of 9.43%.The business’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 6.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.445 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Ross Stores’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is 26.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ROST has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore raised their price target on Ross Stores from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $224.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $215.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $199.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.29.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Patricia H. Mueller sold 1,881 shares of Ross Stores stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.13, for a total transaction of $400,897.53. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,159 shares in the company, valued at $460,147.67. The trade was a 46.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Karen Sykes sold 2,556 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.91, for a total transaction of $546,753.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer directly owned 103,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,234,874.95. This represents a 2.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 2.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.