Ross Stores, Inc. reported that sales for the five weeks ended Jan. 2, 2010 increased 16% to $934 million from $802 million for the five weeks ended Jan. 3, 2009. Same store sales for the month were well ahead of forecast and up 12% over the prior year.
For the eleven months ended January 2, 2010, sales totaled $6.773 billion, up 11% over the $6.121 billion in sales for the eleven months ended Jan. 3, 2009. Comparable store sales for the eleven months ended Jan. 2, 2010 increased 6% compared to the same period last year.
Michael Balmuth, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are very pleased with our robust sales performance during the important holiday period. Dec. benefited from strong traffic trends as customers continued to respond favorably to the wide array of terrific bargains throughout our stores. Our ability to deliver much better than expected sales while operating our business on considerably lower inventories also contributed to solid, above-plan merchandise margin quarter-to-date. Shoes, Home and Dresses remained the strongest merchandise categories in Dec. while the Northwest and Southeast were the top performing regions.”
Looking ahead, Mr. Balmuth continued, “Based on our outstanding sales and margin results quarter-to-date, we are raising our fourth quarter 2009 earnings per share forecast. For the 13 weeks ending Jan. 30, 2010, we now project earnings per share of $1.14 to $1.16, a 50% to 53% increase over the same period last year. This updated forecast also reflects our expectations for Jan. same store sales to grow 6% to 7%, up from our prior projection for a 4% to 5% gain.”
