Fifth Third Bancorp Acquires 62,726 Shares of Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 374.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 79,489 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 62,726 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $17,220,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ROST. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ross Stores in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $868,360,000. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Ross Stores in the 3rd quarter valued at $351,763,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 1,908.8% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,816,763 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $276,857,000 after buying an additional 1,726,324 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Ross Stores by 20.9% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,582,401 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $1,222,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657,008 shares during the period. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP grew its position in Ross Stores by 56.5% in the fourth quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 3,167,479 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $570,590,000 after acquiring an additional 1,143,611 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

ROST stock opened at $219.46 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $224.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.79. Ross Stores, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $126.32 and a fifty-two week high of $242.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.40 billion, a PE ratio of 30.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.87.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The apparel retailer reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.29. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 38.42% and a net margin of 9.74%.The company had revenue of $6.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.47 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. Ross Stores has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.500-7.740 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.850-1.930 EPS. Analysts forecast that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 7.74 EPS for the current year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were paid a dividend of $0.445 per share. 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 Tuesday, June 9th. Ross Stores’s payout ratio is 24.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ROST. Zacks Research raised shares of Ross Stores from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $257.00 target price on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Ross Stores from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $245.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Ross Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.18.

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.