The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Makes New Investment in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 242,371 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $51,589,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fiduciary Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Ross Stores during the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. L2 Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ross Stores in the 2nd quarter valued at $395,000. Visionary Wealth Advisors bought a new position in Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter valued at $433,000. Cibc World Market Inc. purchased a new position in Ross Stores during the 2nd quarter worth $13,831,000. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new stake in shares of Ross Stores in the 2nd quarter worth $5,468,000. Institutional investors own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ROST has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $232.00 to $239.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Ross Stores from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $294.00 price target on shares of Ross Stores in a report on Friday, August 21st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Ross Stores from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Ross Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 20th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ross Stores presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $263.76.

Ross Stores Stock Down 2.0%

ROST opened at $236.27 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a market cap of $75.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.60, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.86. Ross Stores, Inc. has a twelve month low of $143.39 and a twelve month high of $257.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $234.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $223.14.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The apparel retailer reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.71. Ross Stores had a net margin of 10.85% and a return on equity of 39.29%. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.56 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.445 per share. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio is 21.55%.

Ross Stores Company 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.