Ross Stores Beat Earnings

Impressive earnings report from Ross Stores ($ROST). The deep discounter earned 93 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter. That was six cents more than estimates.

The CEO said:

“We are pleased with the better-than-expected sales and earnings we achieved in the third quarter. These results were driven by our ongoing ability to deliver compelling bargains to our customers, which drove above-plan sales gains and strong merchandise gross margins. Operating margin for the quarter grew 55 basis points due to a 40 basis point improvement in cost of goods sold and a 15 basis point decline in selling, general and administrative expenses.”

Quarterly sales rose 8% to $2.599 billion. Same-stores sales were up by 4%.

For Q4, Ross projects earnings between $1.05 and $1.09 per share. For the entire year, they see earnings between $4.28 and $4.32 per share. That’s an increase of 10% to 11% over last year. The shares are up more than 5.5% after hours.

Posted by on November 20th, 2014 at 6:27 pm


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