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Ross Stores (ROST) Rises But Trails Market: What Investors Should Know

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The latest trading session saw Ross Stores (ROST - Free Report) ending at $148.87, denoting a +0.53% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.64% for the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.85%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.2%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the discount retailer had lost 1.53% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.58% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.82% in that time.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Ross Stores in its upcoming release. On that day, Ross Stores is projected to report earnings of $1.49 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 12.88%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $5.24 billion, indicating a 6.1% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $5.97 per share and a revenue of $21.2 billion, signifying shifts of +7.37% and +4.05%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Ross Stores. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been no change in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Right now, Ross Stores possesses a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In the context of valuation, Ross Stores is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 24.81. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 21.5 of its industry.

We can additionally observe that ROST currently boasts a PEG ratio of 2.6. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Retail - Discount Stores industry held an average PEG ratio of 2.5.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 60, this industry ranks in the top 24% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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