Head to Head Review: Ross Stores (ROST) & Its Peers

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) is one of 286 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialty Retail” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Ross Stores to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.9% of Ross Stores shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.6% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.1% of Ross Stores shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.1% of shares of all “Specialty Retail” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Ross Stores and its rivals, 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	3543	15250	21190	548	2.46

Ross Stores currently has a consensus target price of $239.12, suggesting a potential downside of 2.30%. As a group, “Specialty Retail” companies have a potential upside of 10.51%. Given Ross Stores’ rivals higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ross Stores has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Volatility and Risk

Ross Stores has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ross Stores’ rivals have a beta of 1.77, meaning that their average share price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Ross Stores pays an annual dividend of $1.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Ross Stores pays out 24.9% 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 35.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Ross Stores has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ross Stores	9.74%	38.42%	15.18%
Ross Stores Competitors	-2.50%	-25.39%	2.97%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ross Stores and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ross Stores	$22.75 billion	$2.15 billion	34.18
Ross Stores Competitors	$6.99 billion	$387.72 million	14.97

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

Summary

Ross Stores beats its rivals on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

Ross Stores Company Profile

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.