Truist Financial Corp Decreases Holdings in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

Key Points

• Truist Financial Corp cut its stake in Ross Stores by 22.9%, selling 18,735 shares and leaving it with 63,132 shares valued at about $11.37 million as of the latest 13F filing.
• Company insiders sold a total of 25,756 shares worth roughly $5.52 million in the last quarter, including COO Michael Hartshorn's sale of 15,813 shares for about $3.40 million.
• Ross beat quarterly expectations on both EPS ($2.00 vs. $1.90) and revenue, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.445, and multiple analysts raised price targets—MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.

Truist Financial Corp reduced its holdings in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST - Free Report) by 22.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 63,132 shares of the apparel retailer's stock after selling 18,735 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp's holdings in Ross Stores were worth $11,373,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 180,182 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP increased 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 purchasing an additional 426,370 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Ross Stores by 5.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,655,932 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $709,518,000 after purchasing an additional 252,284 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Ross Stores by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,045,346 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $616,470,000 after buying an additional 375,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshfield Associates lifted its position in shares of Ross Stores by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 4,020,413 shares of the apparel retailer's stock worth $612,671,000 after buying an additional 157,385 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.86% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Ross Stores

In other Ross Stores news, COO Michael J. Hartshorn sold 15,813 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 116,028 shares of the company's stock, valued at $24,935,577.48. This represents a 11.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Patricia H. Mueller sold 1,881 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 2,159 shares of the company's stock, valued at $460,147.67. The trade was a 46.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 25,756 shares of company stock worth $5,521,004 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.10% of the company's stock.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

Shares of Ross Stores stock opened at $224.48 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $217.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $192.73. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 12 month low of $124.49 and a 12 month high of $231.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $72.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.96, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

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

Ross Stores Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Ross Stores's dividend payout ratio is 26.93%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ROST. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $215.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Ross Stores from $205.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ross Stores from $205.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ross Stores from $224.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group set a $208.00 target price on Ross Stores in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Ross Stores presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $212.06.

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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