6,942 Shares in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST Bought by UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp purchased a new position in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,942 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,478,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ross Stores in the second quarter valued at $5,938,711,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,911,953 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $2,506,099,000 after purchasing an additional 99,975 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 20.9% during the second 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. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Ross Stores by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,436,788 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $979,384,000 after buying an additional 79,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ross Stores in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $868,360,000. 86.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research downgraded Ross Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Monday, July 6th. Barclays upped their target price on Ross Stores from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Citigroup increased their target price on Ross Stores from $261.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ross Stores currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.76.

Ross Stores Trading Down 4.1%

Shares of ROST opened at $235.28 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.54. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 52-week low of $143.39 and a 52-week high of $257.00. The firm has a market cap of $75.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.86, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $233.84 and its 200-day moving average is $220.77.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 21st. The apparel retailer reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $6.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.64 billion. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 38.42% and a net margin of 9.74%.Ross Stores’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.47 EPS. 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 7.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is 24.86%.

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.