Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Trims Position in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 5.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 169,952 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after selling 10,468 shares during the period. Ross Stores comprises about 1.1% of Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $25,899,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ross Stores by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,182,660 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $4,998,924,000 after buying an additional 5,060,954 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $521,159,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Ross Stores by 20.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,582,401 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,222,523,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657,008 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ross Stores by 59.3% in the first quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,055,088 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $518,200,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509,815 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Ross Stores by 30.1% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,669,876 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $468,203,000 after purchasing an additional 849,391 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ROST shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Guggenheim upgraded Ross Stores to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Ross Stores from $170.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, UBS Group set a $203.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ross Stores has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $183.56.

Insider Activity at Ross Stores

In other Ross Stores news, insider Stephen C. Brinkley sold 6,437 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.97, for a total transaction of $971,793.89. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 57,012 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,607,101.64. This represents a 10.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ross Stores Price Performance

ROST opened at $181.14 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $58.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.03. Ross Stores, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.36 and a fifty-two week high of $185.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $170.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $151.81.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The apparel retailer reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.20. Ross Stores had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 36.75%. The firm had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.48 EPS. Ross Stores’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. Ross Stores has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.380-6.46 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.770-1.85 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 6.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Ross Stores Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 9th will be issued a $0.405 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 9th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.31%.

About Ross Stores

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.