Ross Shares Tumble after Company Reports Q4 Earnings

Shares of retail store Ross saw a dip this week after the company reported its fourth quarter and full year 2017 financial results.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported adjusted EPS of $0.98 and revenues of $4.07 billion. Analysts had been expecting EPS of $0.93 a share and revenues of $3.95 billion.

Revenue for the fourth quarter was also an increase from $3.51 billion in the year ago quarter.

The company also decided to approve an increase in the stock repurchase authorization for this year to $1.08 billion. It also approved an increase in its quarterly cash dividend to $0.225 per share.

For fiscal 2018, Ross is expecting same-store sales to see a growth in the range of 1% and 2% and earnings per share in the range of $3.86 and $4.03.

CEO Barbara Rentler commented, “Fourth quarter operating margin grew 95 basis points to 14.6%, up from 13.6% in the prior year. This improvement was driven by a combination of strong merchandise margin, expense leverage from solid gains in same store sales, and the impact of the 53rd week.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) and have not been compensated for this article.