West Family Investments Inc. Makes New $765,000 Investment in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,592 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $765,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,047,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE acquired a new position in Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,790,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter worth $486,000. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Ross Stores in the second quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new position in shares of Ross Stores during the second quarter valued at $37,045,000. 86.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ROST opened at $234.69 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $234.03 and a 200-day moving average of $221.46. The firm has a market cap of $75.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Ross Stores, Inc. has a twelve month low of $143.39 and a twelve month high of $257.00.

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

Ross Stores Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ROST has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $257.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Zacks Research cut shares of Ross Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Tuesday. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ross Stores presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.76.

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.