Childress Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

Childress Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 167.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,405 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,758 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $793,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 1.9% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,762,583 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,487,720,000 after acquiring an additional 180,182 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 9.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 426,370 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 5.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,655,932 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $709,518,000 after acquiring an additional 252,284 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 10.2% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,045,346 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $616,470,000 after acquiring an additional 375,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshfield Associates boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 4.1% in the third quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 4,020,413 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $612,671,000 after acquiring an additional 157,385 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ROST shares. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Ross Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $200.00 target price on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $221.00 target price on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ross Stores has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ross Stores 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 transaction, the director owned 2,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $460,147.67. The trade was a 46.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Michael J. Hartshorn sold 15,813 shares of Ross Stores stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.91, for a total transaction of $3,398,371.83. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 116,028 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,935,577.48. The trade was a 11.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,756 shares of company stock valued at $5,521,004. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Ross Stores Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Ross Stores stock opened at $224.15 on Thursday. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 52-week low of $124.49 and a 52-week high of $226.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $208.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $185.29. The firm has a market cap of $72.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.92.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The apparel retailer reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. Ross Stores had a net margin of 9.43% and a return on equity of 36.70%. The business’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 6.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Ross Stores Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. This is an increase from Ross Stores’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Ross Stores’s payout ratio is presently 26.93%.

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.