Ross Stores, Inc. reported that sales for the four weeks ended Nov. 28, 2009 increased 12% to $635 million from $568 million for the four weeks ended November 29, 2008. Same store sales for the month rose 8%.
For the ten months, sales totaled $5.839 billion, up 10% over the $5.320 billion in sales for the ten months ended November 29, 2008. Comparable store sales increased 5% on top of a 2% gain in the same period last year.
Michael Balmuth, vice chairman, president and chief executive officer, commented, “November sales outperformed our expectations as business strengthened in the second half of the month. Shoes, Dresses and Home continued to be the strongest merchandise categories while the Southwest and Northwest were the top performing regions.”
Looking ahead, Balmuth continued, “While we are pleased with our healthy start to the holiday season, most of the pre-Christmas shopping period is still ahead of us. As a result, we believe it is prudent to maintain our current forecast for comparable store sales gains of 6%-7% in December and 4%-5% in January. Based on these targets and our ahead-of-plan sales in November, we now project that earnings per share for the fourth quarter ending January 30, 2010 will be at the high end to slightly better than our previous guidance range of $.88-$.94.”
