Why Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) Crashed On Friday

We recently published a list of 10 Firms That Led Bloodbath Today. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) stands against other Friday’s worst-performing stocks.

Discount retailer Ross Stores dropped its share prices by 9.85 percent on Friday to end at $137.26 each, primarily due to a pessimistic business outlook and the withdrawal of its earlier growth targets.

“While we directly import only a small portion of our merchandise, more than half of the goods we sell originate from China. As such, we expect pressure on our profitability if tariffs remain at elevated levels,” said Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) CEO Jim Conroy, adding that the company was withdrawing previously provided annual sales and earnings guidance.

For the second quarter of the year, Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) now expects same-store sales growth to remain flat or grow by up to 3 percent, much slower than the 4-percent gain registered in the same period last year.

Earnings per share, on the other hand, are now projected to be in the range of $1.40 to $1.55, versus a $1.59 growth in the same comparable period.

A close-up of a mannequin outfitted with the company’s latest collection of apparel.

In the first quarter of the year, Ross Stores Inc.’s (NASDAQ:ROST) net income edged lower by 1.8 percent to $479 million from the $488 million registered in the same period last year. Revenues grew by 2.6 percent to $4.984 billion from $4.858 billion year-on-year.

Overall, ROST ranks 7th on our list of Friday’s worst-performing stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of ROST, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk.  If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ROST and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.