Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST Position Cut by TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.

Key Points

• TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. trimmed its Ross Stores stake by 82.0% in Q4, selling 5,590 shares and leaving it with 1,226 shares valued at $221,000; institutional investors own about 86.86% of the stock.
• Ross beat quarterly estimates with EPS of $2.00 (vs. $1.90) and revenue of $6.64B (up 12.2% YoY), and analysts remain broadly positive—16 Buys vs. 5 Holds—with a consensus "Moderate Buy" and an average target of $208.29.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.445 ($1.78 annualized, ~0.8% yield), while insiders sold roughly 25,756 shares (~$5.52M) last quarter, leaving insiders with about 2.10% ownership.

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. trimmed its holdings in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST - Free Report) by 82.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,226 shares of the apparel retailer's stock after selling 5,590 shares during the quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.'s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $221,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its holdings in Ross Stores by 7,000.0% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 142 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank & Trust bought a new position in Ross Stores during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. City Holding Co. boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 1,080.0% during the 4th quarter. City Holding Co. now owns 177 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ross Stores during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 42.6% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 211 shares of the apparel retailer's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. 86.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ROST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $240.00 price target on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. UBS Group set a $208.00 price target on Ross Stores in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ross Stores from $215.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $221.00 price target on Ross Stores in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $208.29.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

ROST opened at $226.40 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $72.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.92. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $213.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.15. Ross Stores, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $124.49 and a fifty-two week high of $230.44.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 3rd. The apparel retailer reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.42 billion. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 36.70% and a net margin of 9.43%.The company's revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 7.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Michael J. Hartshorn sold 15,813 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.91, for a total value of $3,398,371.83. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 116,028 shares of the company's stock, valued at $24,935,577.48. This trade represents a 11.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Patricia H. Mueller sold 1,881 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.13, for a total value of $400,897.53. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,159 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $460,147.67. This trade represents a 46.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 25,756 shares of company stock worth $5,521,004 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 2.10% of the company's stock.

Ross Stores Company 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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