Wells Fargo & Company Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST)

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reissued by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $165.00 price target on the apparel retailer’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 8.74% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on ROST. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective (down previously from $178.00) on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ross Stores from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup cut shares of Ross Stores from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $179.00 to $152.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $185.00 to $177.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $171.29.

Ross Stores Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ ROST opened at $151.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $50.06 billion, a PE ratio of 23.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $149.52 and a 200 day moving average of $147.67. Ross Stores has a 1 year low of $127.53 and a 1 year high of $163.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The apparel retailer reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.07. Ross Stores had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 41.83%. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Ross Stores will post 6.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ross Stores

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Ross Stores during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in Ross Stores by 434.1% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 235 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Ross Stores in the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in Ross Stores in the 3rd quarter valued at about $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

About Ross Stores

Ross Stores, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates off-price retail apparel and home fashion stores under the Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS brand names in the United States. Its stores primarily offer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions. The company’s Ross Dress for Less stores sell its products at department and specialty stores to middle income households; and dd’s DISCOUNTS stores sell its products at department and discount stores for households with moderate income.