Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) reported that its third-quarter net earnings grew 83% to $105.1 million, from $57.3 million in the same quarter last year. Earnings per share for the quarter increased 91% to $0.84, from $0.44 last year.
Sales for the quarter increased 12% to $1.744 billion, from $1.56 billion in the year ago quarter. Comparable store sales up a strong 8% over last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.84 per share on revenues of $1.73 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
For the fourth-quarter, the company continues to forecast same store sales gains of 5% to 6% and earnings per share in the range of $0.88 to $0.94. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.99 per share for the fourth-quarter.
For the fiscal year 2009, the company now project earnings per share to increase 40% to 43% to $3.27 to $3.33, up from $2.33 in fiscal 2008. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $3.37 per share for fiscal 2009. Earlier, the company had expected earnings to be in the range of $3.18 - $3.26 per share.
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