Ross Stores Issues Q1, FY22 Outlook

(RTTNews) - While reporting its results for the fourth quarter, Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) issued an outlook for the first quarter and full year 2022.

Looking ahead, CEO Barbara Rentler said, "Fiscal 2022 is extremely difficult to predict, especially early in the year. In addition to the ongoing Omicron surge that began just before Christmas, we are up against last year's record government stimulus and the lifting of COVID restrictions that led to unprecedented consumer demand which fueled extraordinary sales gains in the Spring of 2021."

For the first quarter, the company expects comparable store sales to be down 2% to down 4% and earnings of $0.93 to $0.99 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters currently estimate earnings of $1.33 per share for the quarter.

For the full year 2022, the company expects comparable store sales to be flat to up 3% and earnings of $4.71 to $5.12 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $4.79 per share for the year.

Further, the company said its Board of Directors recently authorized a new two-year program to repurchase up to $1.9 billion of common stock through fiscal 2023. This authorization replaces the $850 million remaining under the prior buyback authorization announced in May 2021.

The Board also increased the quarterly cash dividend by 9% to $0.31 per share to be payable on March 31, 2022 to stockholders of record as of March 15, 2022.

ROST closed Tuesday's trading at $89.55, down $1.84 or 2.01%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $6.92 or 7.73% in the after-hours trading.