Ross Stores shares down 6% on weaker outlook, flat same-store sales
Shares of Ross Stores Inc. fell more than 6% late Thursday after the retailer posted first-quarter earnings and sales above Wall Street expectations but predicted weaker second-quarter earnings. Ross said it earned $418 million, or $1.1 a share, in the quarter, compared with $321 million, or 82 cents a share, a year ago. Sales rose 9% to to $3.6 billion. Same-store store sales grew 3%, the same gain as the first quarter of 2017. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected per-share earnings of $1.07 on sales of $3.5 billion, and a rise in same-store sales by 2.9%. Ross said it expects second-quarter same-store sales to be up between 1% and 2%, and second-quarter earnings per share between 95 cents and 99 cents. The analysts surveyed by FactSet expect EPS of $1.03 a share on sales of $3.65 billion for the second quarter. Ross shares ended the regular session up 0.4%.
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