Ross Stores (ROST)
Forward P/E is 26.73x against a peer median of 25.30x, a ratio of 1.06x — inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band — with trailing P/E 27.58x and PEG 1.96. Latest-quarter revenue growth was +13.3% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), ahead of the cluster median. Delivered demand check: the Retail — broadline & specialty group's median growth was +8.1% year over year — demand rising, and this company is growing faster than the group, which supports its price near the peer median.
What would change this label: Move to UNDERVALUED if the forward P/E compresses to about 22.8x or below (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates with revenue growth staying in double digits. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E rises above about 29.1x (1.15x the peer median) without growth accelerating, or if revenue growth falls below the cluster median of +8.1% for two quarters while the multiple stays above 25x.
Ross Stores sells discounted brand-name clothing and home goods. Its shares cost about the same as similar retailers, and its sales are growing faster than the group's. Fairly priced — full price, but backed by real growth.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Ross Stores returned +152.10% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Ross Stores: -47.2% (2021-05-07 to 2022-06-30). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 26.73x against a peer median of 25.30x, a ratio of 1.06x — inside the 0.90–1.15 fairly priced band — with trailing P/E 27.58x and PEG 1.96. Latest-quarter revenue growth was +13.3% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), ahead of the cluster median. Delivered demand check: the Retail — broadline & specialty group's median growth was +8.1% year over year — demand rising, and this company is growing faster than the group, which supports its price near the peer median. The company’s forward P/E is 26.7× against a peer median of 25.3×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Retail — broadline & specialty group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was +8.1% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. This company grew faster than the group, at +13.3%. Latest-quarter sales growth was +13.3% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ross Stores (ROST) | $228.03 | 26.7× | 27.6× |
| ORLY | $88.89 | 25.7× | 28.2× |
| DASH | $170.72 | 25.3× | 89.7× |
| EBAY | $116.28 | 18.6× | 24.0× |
| AZO | $3,141.56 | 18.5× | 20.6× |
| CVNA | $59.56 | 29.2× | 32.8× |
| Peer median | 25.3× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Aug 2026 2026-08-01 | $6.3B | — | $851M | 2.66 | $624M |
| Q/E May 2026 2026-05-02 | $6.0B | — | $650M | 2.02 | $627M |
| Q/E Jan 2026 2026-01-31 | $6.6B | — | $646M | — | $921M |
| Q/E Nov 2025 2025-11-01 | $5.6B | — | $512M | 1.58 | $618M |
| Q/E Aug 2025 2025-08-02 | $5.5B | — | $508M | 1.56 | $467M |
| Q/E May 2025 2025-05-03 | $5.0B | — | $479M | 1.47 | $202M |
| Q/E Feb 2025 2025-02-01 | $5.9B | — | $587M | — | $677M |
| Q/E Nov 2024 2024-11-02 | $5.1B | — | $489M | 1.48 | $333M |
| Q/E Aug 2024 2024-08-03 | $5.3B | — | $527M | 1.59 | $395M |
| Q/E May 2024 2024-05-04 | $4.9B | — | $488M | 1.46 | $233M |
| Q/E Feb 2024 2024-02-03 | $6.0B | — | $610M | — | $726M |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-28 | $4.9B | — | $447M | 1.33 | $272M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | ROSS STORES, INC. |
| Chief executive | Jim Conroy (source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/08/21/why-ross-stores-stock-is-up-today/) |
| Sector | Consumer Discretionary — Apparel Retail — sells discounted brand-name clothing and home goods in off-price stores |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $228.03 |
| Market value (market cap) | $73.5B — share price times shares outstanding of 319,453,110 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $24.5B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $2.7B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $2.8B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Aug 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +152.10% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -47.2% (2021-05-07 to 2022-06-30) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000745732.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000745732.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/ROST/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.