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Ross Stores (ROST) Stock Slips After Q4 Earnings Beat (revised)

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Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST - Free Report) released its fourth-quarter and full year 2017 financial results, posting adjusted earnings of $0.98 per share and revenues of $4.07 billion. Currently, Ross Stores is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and is down nearly 3% to $78 per share in after-hours trading shortly after its earnings report was released.

ROST:

Beat earnings estimates. The company posted adjusted earnings of $0.98 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.93 per share. Unadjusted earnings were $1.19 per share, which includes a $0.10 per share benefit from the 53rd week and another $0.21 from the new Republican tax law.

Beat revenue estimates. The company saw revenue figures of $4.07 billion, topping our consensus estimate of $3.95 billion.

Ross Stores revenues jumped from $3.51 billion in the year-ago period. Ross’ board also approved both an increase in the stock repurchase authorization for 2018 to $1.08 billion and a higher quarterly cash dividend of $0.225 per share.

Looking ahead, the company now expects to post fiscal 2018 same-store sales growth between 1% and 2%. Ross also expects to report full-year 2018 earnings per share between $3.86 and $4.03.

“Fourth quarter operating margin grew 95 basis points to 14.6%, up from 13.6% in the prior year,” CEO Barbara Rentler said in a statement. “This improvement was driven by a combination of strong merchandise margin, expense leverage from solid gains in same store sales, and the impact of the 53rd week.”

Here’s a graph that looks at ROST’s Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise history:

Ross Stores, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Ross Stores, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Ross Stores, Inc. Quote

Ross Stores, Inc. is a company headquartered in Dublin, California, operates Ross Dress for Less (Ross), the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the United States, the District of Columbia and Guam. Ross offers first-quality, in-season, name brand and designer apparel, accessories, footwear and home fashions for the entire family at savings of 20% to 60% off department and specialty store regular prices every day.

Check back later for our full analysis on ROST’s earnings report!

(NOTE: We are re-issuing this article to correct a mistake. The original version, posted yesterday, March 6, 2018, should no longer be relied upon.)

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