Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Has $10.95 Million Stake in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lowered its stake in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 1.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 85,707 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $10,952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,515,891 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $2,952,170,000 after acquiring an additional 3,995,760 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,287,162 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,250,423,000 after acquiring an additional 135,117 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,620,083 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,152,690,000 after acquiring an additional 807,850 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Ross Stores in the fourth quarter worth about $649,318,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,805,427 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $575,647,000 after acquiring an additional 154,486 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ROST shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ross Stores from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $157.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $168.00 to $163.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Ross Stores from $175.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ross Stores presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $159.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Michael Balmuth sold 11,261 shares of Ross Stores stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.60, for a total transaction of $1,481,947.60. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 59,790 shares in the company, valued at $7,868,364. The trade was a 15.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Michael J. Hartshorn sold 7,492 shares of Ross Stores stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.69, for a total value of $956,653.48. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 139,091 shares in the company, valued at $17,760,529.79. The trade was a 5.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 34,398 shares of company stock valued at $4,439,950 in the last three months. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

NASDAQ ROST opened at $131.85 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $141.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $142.59. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.36 and a 12-month high of $163.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $43.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.76, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.14.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The apparel retailer reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $4.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.94 billion. Ross Stores had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 41.83%. Ross Stores’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 6.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 10th. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is 25.59%.

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.