Ross Stores, Inc. reported sales of $494 million for the five weeks ended July 1, 2006, a 12% increase above the $440 million in sales for the five weeks ended July 2, 2005. Comparable store sales for the month of June increased 5% on top of a 6% gain in the prior year.
For the five months ended July 1, 2006, sales were $2.202 billion, a 14% increase over the $1.934 billion in sales for the prior year’s comparable period ended July 2, 2005. Comparable store sales for the five months grew 6% on top of a 5% gain in the prior year.
Vice Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Balmuth said, “Same store sales in June continued to perform slightly ahead of our expectations, benefiting from broadbased geographic and merchandise trends. The strongest region remained the Southwest and the best performing merchandise departments were Shoes and Home.”
Mr. Balmuth continued, “Looking ahead, we are maintaining our forecast for same store sales to increase 4% to 5% in July. With sales slightly above plan in May and June, we are now projecting second quarter earnings per share to be at the high end of our previously forecasted range of $.30 to $.32, despite some incremental markdown pressure in June.”
Regarding the balance of the fiscal year, Mr. Balmuth said, “We remain cautiously optimistic about our prospects for sales and earnings gains in the second half, especially in light of our solid top line growth over the past several quarters. We plan to update, if necessary, our previously issued forecasted earnings per share ranges of $.27 to $.29 and $.60 to $.64 for the third and fourth quarters, respectively, on our second quarter conference call on August 16th. At that point, we should have better visibility into expected markdown activity and in-store inventory levels as we enter the fall season.”
