Comparing Ross Stores (ROST) & The Competition

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) is one of 285 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialty Retail” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Ross Stores to similar businesses based on the strength of its risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and earnings.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.9% of Ross Stores shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.0% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Ross Stores shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 21.0% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Ross Stores and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ross Stores	0	6	15	0	2.71
Ross Stores Competitors	3544	15301	21280	552	2.46

Ross Stores presently has a consensus price target of $263.76, suggesting a potential upside of 15.06%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 11.44%. Given Ross Stores’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Ross Stores is more favorable than its competitors.

Risk and Volatility

Ross Stores has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ross Stores’ competitors have a beta of 1.78, indicating that their average share price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ross Stores and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ross Stores	$22.75 billion	$2.15 billion	27.75
Ross Stores Competitors	$7.00 billion	$390.09 million	17.31

Ross Stores has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Ross Stores is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Ross Stores and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ross Stores	10.85%	39.29%	15.79%
Ross Stores Competitors	-3.48%	-30.19%	3.19%

Dividends

Ross Stores pays an annual dividend of $1.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ross Stores pays out 21.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.0% and pay out 35.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Ross Stores has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Summary

Ross Stores beats its competitors on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

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. Ross Stores, Inc. was incorporated in 1957 and is headquartered in Dublin, California.