Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) reported strong results for the second quarter of 2024, with both its top and bottom lines showing year-over-year growth and surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The strong results can be attributed to its focus on offering stronger value propositions to customers. Despite better-than-expected results, Ross Stores has provided cautious guidance for the second half of 2024.
Ross Stores, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Ross Stores, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Ross Stores, Inc. Quote
Let's Delve Deeper into ROST's Q2 Performance
Ross Stores, the leading off-price apparel retailer, delivered earnings of $1.59 per share, which significantly surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.49 per share. Additionally, the bottom line also improved by 20.5% from $1.32 per share reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
Total sales of $5,287.5 million rose 7% year over year and surpassed the consensus estimate of $5,249 million. The sales improvement mainly stemmed from strong comparable store sales (comps) performance. Comps improved by 4%, mainly driven by a combination of higher customer traffic and increased basket size, indicating that more shoppers visited Ross Stores during the quarter and purchased more items per visit.
The cost of goods sold (COGS) was $3,791.9 million, which increased 6.2% year over year. As a percentage of sales, COGS was 71.7%, marking a year-over-year decrease of 60 basis points (bps). We had estimated a 50-bps decline in the ...
