Ross Stores, Inc. said sales for the five weeks ended July 4 increased 6% to $666 million from $628 million for the five weeks ended July 5, 2008. Same store sales for the month rose 1% on top of a strong 8% gain in the prior year.
For the five months ended July 4, sales totaled $2.92 billion, an 8% increase over the $2.69 billion in sales for the five months ended July 5, 2008. Comparable store sales for the five months ended July 4 increased 3% on top of a 5% gain in the prior year period.
Michael Balmuth, Vice Chairman, President and CEO, commented, “We are pleased with our better-than-expected sales results in June, especially in light of the difficult prior year comparison. We believe that our ongoing focus on delivering fresh and exciting bargains continues to resonate with today's increasingly value-oriented consumers. Merchandise and geographic trends were relatively broad-based. Dresses and Shoes remained the strongest merchandise categories in June, while the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic were the best-performing regions.”
Looking ahead, Mr. Balmuth said, “Considering our recent business trends, we now are forecasting July same store sales to be relatively flat to last year, up from our prior guidance of down 1% to 2%. Based on our ahead-of-plan sales in May and June and our updated July outlook, along with very strong merchandise gross margin and favorable expense trends, our second quarter earnings are expected to be well ahead of our original range of 60 cents to 63 cents per share. For the 13 weeks ending August 1, earnings per share now are projected to be 73 cents to 75 cents, up significantly from 54 cents in the second quarter of 2008.”
