Ross Stores, Inc. reported sales of $289 million for the four weeks ended May 3, 2003, a 9% increase above the $264 million in sales for the four weeks ended May 4, 2002. Comparable store sales for the month declined 1% compared to an 8% increase in the prior year.
For the 13 weeks ended May 3, 2003, sales totaled $879 million, a 7% increase above the $820 million in sales for the 13 weeks ended May 4, 2002. Comparable store sales for the 13 weeks ended May 3, 2003 declined 3% vs. a 10% gain in the prior year period.
In commenting, Michael Balmuth, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are pleased to report that strong inventory and expense controls, as well as the earlier-than-planned opening of several new stores, offset the impact of lower-than-expected revenue on first quarter earnings. External issues, including unseasonable weather trends, the war in Iraq and the lackluster economic climate, negatively affected business during the period. Despite these pressures, however, earnings per share for the 13 weeks ended May 3, 2003 are estimated to increase about 7% to approximately $.63, from $.59 for the 13 weeks ended May 4, 2002.”
Mr. Balmuth continued, “Based on recent trends, we believe it is prudent to adopt more conservative sales assumptions for the second quarter. We now anticipate that comparable store sales for the 13 weeks ending August 2, 2003 will be flattish to the prior year, vs. a 9% same store sales gain during the second quarter of 2002 and our prior guidance of up 2% to 3%. Nevertheless, we believe that ongoing inventory and expense controls should help to mitigate the effect of these lower-than-planned sales. As a result, we forecast that fiscal 2003 second quarter earnings per share will be in the range of $.66 to $.70, or a respectable increase of about 6% to 13% over the $.62 in earnings per share for the 13 weeks ended August 3, 2002. Looking ahead to the second half of 2003, we are maintaining our previous outlook mainly due to easier prior year comparisons. After increasing 10% in the first half of 2002, same store sales grew just 5% in the second half of last year. We also believe our business should strengthen as weather normalizes and the economic and geopolitical situation hopefully improves. As a result, we continue to plan same store sales gains of 3% to 4% for the third and fourth quarters of 2003.”
