Alyeska Investment Group L.P. Cuts Stock Holdings in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

Key Points

• Alyeska Investment Group cut its Ross Stores stake by 23.6% in the second quarter, selling 217,478 shares and retaining 703,110 shares valued at about $149.7 million. Institutional investors collectively own 86.86% of the company.
• Ross Stores reported a strong quarter, with EPS of $2.66 beating estimates of $1.95 and revenue of $6.26 billion exceeding forecasts. Revenue increased 13.3% year over year.
• The stock opened at $228.55, while analysts maintained a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $263.76. Ross Stores also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.445 per share, implying a 0.8% annual yield.

Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lowered its stake in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST - Free Report) by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 703,110 shares of the apparel retailer's stock after selling 217,478 shares during the quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. owned 0.22% of Ross Stores worth $149,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Flputnam Investment Management Co. increased its stake in Ross Stores by 11.1% in the second quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 1,292 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $275,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Ross Stores by 39.9% during the second quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. now owns 145,031 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $30,870,000 after purchasing an additional 41,355 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co boosted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 33.5% in the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 8,210 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $1,747,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ross Stores in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,632,000. Finally, Greenleaf Trust increased its position in shares of Ross Stores by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 6,026 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $1,283,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. 86.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ross Stores Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ ROST opened at $228.55 on Friday. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 1 year low of $143.39 and a 1 year high of $257.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $233.95 and a 200 day moving average of $223.45. The stock has a market cap of $73.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.86.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The apparel retailer reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.71. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.16 billion. Ross Stores had a net margin of 10.85% and a return on equity of 39.29%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 8.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Ross Stores's payout ratio is presently 21.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ROST has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ross Stores from $245.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $262.00 to $272.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Ross Stores from $232.00 to $239.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ross Stores from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, June 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Ross Stores from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $263.76.

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.

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