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Ross Stores (ROST) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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The most recent trading session ended with Ross Stores (ROST - Free Report) standing at $142.39, reflecting a +0.4% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.71% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 1.03%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.6%.

Shares of the discount retailer have depreciated by 5.95% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 8.01% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.41%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Ross Stores in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Ross Stores to post earnings of $1.41 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 6.02%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.17 billion, up 5.01% from the year-ago period.

ROST's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.20 per share and revenue of $21.27 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +11.51% and +4.39%, respectively.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Ross Stores. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Ross Stores is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

With respect to valuation, Ross Stores is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 22.88. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 20.09.

It's also important to note that ROST currently trades at a PEG ratio of 2.3. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As the market closed yesterday, the Retail - Discount Stores industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.44.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 217, positioning it in the bottom 14% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.


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