Ross Stores (NASDAQ: ROST) posted its Q1 results after the market closed on Thursday. The company reported an EPS of $0.97 and a revenue of $4.33 billion. Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) lowered its outlook for the full year 2022, sending the company’s shares down over 20% during after market hours.
Analyst Estimates
EPS: $0.97 vs $0.99 estimated
Revenue: $4.33 billion vs $4.52 billion
CEO Statement
“We are disappointed with our lower-than-expected first quarter results. Following a stronger-than-planned start early in the period, sales underperformed over the balance of the quarter. We knew fiscal 2022 would be a difficult year to predict, especially the first half when we were facing last year’s record levels of government stimulus and significant customer pent-up demand as COVID restrictions eased. The external environment has also proven extremely challenging as the Russia-Ukraine conflict has exacerbated inflationary pressures on the consumer not seen in 40 years.”
“First quarter operating margin of 10.8% was down from 14.2% in 2021, reflecting the deleveraging effect from the same store sales decline combined with ongoing headwinds from higher freight and wage costs that began rising in the second half of 2021.”
Barbara Rentler, Chief Executive Officer
Q2 and FY22 guidance
The company’s CEO commented that,
“Given our first quarter results and today’s increasingly uncertain macro-economic and geopolitical environment, we believe it is prudent to adopt a more conservative outlook for the balance of the year. We are now forecasting same store sales for the 13 weeks ending July 30, 2022 to decrease 4% to 6% on top of a very strong 15% gain in the prior year period, with earnings per share projected to be $0.99 to $1.07 versus $1.39 in last year’s second quarter.”
She continued, “Although we continue to expect sales and profitability to improve as we move through the year, for the 52 weeks ending January 28, 2023, we now forecast comparable store sales to decline 2% to 4% versus a 13% gain in fiscal 2021. Earnings per share for fiscal 2022 are projected to be $4.34 to $4.58 compared to $4.87 in the prior year.”
Ms. Rentler concluded, “While the landscape in early 2022 has been tougher than expected and the year may prove to be more difficult than initially anticipated, we remain confident in our ability to successfully navigate through this period. We have shown in the past that our value-focused business model has served us well in both healthy and more uncertain external climates and believe the current challenging conditions will be no different.”
About Ross Stores
Ross Stores, Inc. is an S&P 500, Fortune 500, and Nasdaq 100 (ROST) company headquartered in Dublin, California, with fiscal 2021 revenues of $18.9 billion. Currently, the Company operates Ross Dress for Less® (“Ross”), the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the United States with 1,648 locations in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. Ross offers first-quality, in-season, name brand and designer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions for the entire family at savings of 20% to 60% off department and specialty store regular prices every day. The Company also operates 303 dd’s DISCOUNTS® stores in 21 states that feature a more moderately-priced assortment of first-quality, in-season, name brand apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions for the entire family at savings of 20% to 70% off moderate department and discount store regular prices every day.
