Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) and Others Witness Increased Insider Selling Lately

Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) saw two top-tier executives sell sizable blocks of shares last week. Michael B. O’Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer, discarded 38,000 shares on Tuesday and 20,163 shares on Wednesday at prices varying from $57.95 to $58.29 per share. Following the recent sales, Mr. O’Sullivan continues to hold a direct ownership stake of 419,478 shares. Bernard G. Brautigan, President of Merchandising, sold 24,586 units of common stock last Monday at a weighted average price of $58.35, trimming his ownership to 202,258 shares.

Ross Stores is the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the United States, operating stores under Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS brand names. Ross Stores has enjoyed a great stock and financial performance in the past several years, with its shares being up 10% in the past year alone. The company generated sales of $11.94 billion for fiscal 2015 that ended January 30, which increased from $11.04 billion reported for the previous year. Ross Stores’ management anticipates same-store sales growth in the range of 1%-to-2% for fiscal 2016 that ends January 28, 2017. Similarly, the management expects fiscal 2016 earnings per share in the range of $2.59 to $2.71 per share, which denotes an increase of 3% to 8% from the figure reported for fiscal 2015. Just recently, analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded Ross Stores to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ and removed the company from its conviction list, saying that there is only 6% upside to its price target of $61. Nonetheless, analysts at Goldman Sachs “continue to view Ross Stores as a long-term secular winner, and fundamentals should benefit near term as excess inventory in the apparel channel provides better buying opportunities”. Shares of Ross Stores are currently trading around 18.9-times expected earnings, versus the forward P/E multiple of 20.2 for the Apparel Retail industry. The hedge fund sentiment towards Ross Stores declined significantly in the December quarter, with the number of funds invested in the company shrinking to 33 from 40 during the three-month period. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management reported owning 1.02 million shares of Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) through its 13F for the fourth quarter.