Ross Stores, Inc. sales were $470 million for the month of October, 2007, a 6% increase over the $444 million in sales for the four weeks ended November 4, 2006. Same store sales for the four weeks ended November 3, 2007 declined 1% from the four weeks ended November 4, 2006.
For the thirteen weeks ended November 3, 2007, sales were $1.468 billion, an 8% increase over the $1.364 billion in sales reported for the thirteen weeks ended November 4, 2006. Same store sales for the thirteen weeks ended November 3, 2007 grew 1% over the comparable prior year period ended November 4, 2006.
For the nine months ended November 3, 2007, sales were $4.324 billion, an 8% increase over the $3.991 billion in sales for the nine months ended November 4, 2006. Comparable store sales for the nine months ended November 3, 2007 rose 1% over the nine months ended November 4, 2006.
Michael Balmuth, Vice Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We believe that our business in October was impacted by the ongoing challenging macroeconomic environment combined with unseasonably warm weather in a number of our markets. The strongest region during the month was the Northwest, while Dresses and Home remained the top performing businesses.”
Looking ahead, Mr. Balmuth said, “Based on recent sales and margin trends, we now estimate that earnings per share for the 13 weeks ended November 3, 2007 will be in the range of 35 cents to 36 cents. This compares to earnings per share for the third quarter of 2006 of 31 cents. As we enter the important holiday season, we remain cautious in our outlook and defensively postured with lower inventories and tight expense controls. We will provide sales and earnings guidance for the fourth quarter with our third quarter earnings release and conference call on Tuesday, November 20th.”
