Ross Stores Issues Guidance; Announces 19% Increase In Quarterly Cash Dividend

(RTTNews) - Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) announced, for the 52 weeks ending January 27, 2018, the company is forecasting same store sales to grow 1% to 2%. For the 53 weeks ending February 3, 2018, earnings per share are projected to be $3.02 to $3.15. Incorporated in this guidance range is an estimated benefit to earnings per share of approximately $0.08 from the 53rd week in fiscal 2017.

For the first quarter ending April 29, 2017, comparable store sales are forecast to be up 1% to 2% with earnings per share projected to be $0.76 to $0.79 .

Looking ahead, Barbara Rentler, CEO, said, "There continues to be uncertainty in the political, macro-economic, and retail climates, and we also face our own challenging sales and earnings comparisons. Thus, while we hope to do better, we believe it is prudent to remain somewhat cautious in planning our business for the 2017 fiscal year."

Ross Stores announced its Board authorized a new program to repurchase $1.75 billion of its common stock over the next two fiscal years. At recent stock prices, this new repurchase program represents about 6% of the company's total market value and a 25% increase over the prior two-year $1.4 billion authorization that was completed in January 2017. The Board also approved an increase in the quarterly cash dividend to $0.16 per share, up 19% on top of a 15% increase in the prior year. This higher quarterly dividend is payable on March 31, 2017 to stockholders of record as of March 10, 2017.