Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST Shares Purchased by Handelsbanken Fonder AB

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 28.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 217,622 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 48,775 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $46,321,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Ross Stores by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,911,953 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $2,506,099,000 after buying an additional 99,975 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Ross Stores by 20.9% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,582,401 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,222,523,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657,008 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Ross Stores by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,436,788 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $979,384,000 after acquiring an additional 79,519 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ross Stores in the 4th quarter valued at about $868,360,000. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP lifted its holdings in Ross Stores by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 4,747,639 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $605,704,000 after acquiring an additional 426,370 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ROST. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Monday, April 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $248.00 to $251.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $257.00 target price on shares of Ross Stores in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $261.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ross Stores from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $239.12.

Ross Stores Stock Performance

Shares of Ross Stores stock opened at $251.81 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $80.78 billion, a PE ratio of 35.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $232.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $219.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 12 month low of $143.39 and a 12 month high of $257.00.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The apparel retailer reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $6.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.64 billion. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 38.42% and a net margin of 9.74%.Ross Stores’s quarterly revenue was up 20.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.47 earnings per share. Ross Stores has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.500-7.740 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.850-1.930 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 7.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a $0.445 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 9th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.86%.

Ross Stores Profile

Ross Stores, Inc (NASDAQ: ROST) is an American off?price retailer headquartered in Dublin, California, that operates the Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS store formats. The company sells a broad assortment of apparel, footwear, home fashions, accessories and other soft goods, positioning itself as a value-oriented destination for brand?name and fashion merchandise at reduced prices.

Ross’s business model centers on opportunistic buying of excess inventory, closeouts, cancelled orders and overstocks from manufacturers, department stores and other suppliers.