Dublin, California-based Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) is an operator of home fashion and off-price retail apparel stores. With a market cap of $43.6 billion, Ross Stores offers apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashion items through its outlets in the United States.

Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as “large-cap stock,” Ross Stores fits right into that category, with its market cap exceeding this threshold, reflecting its substantial size, dominance and influence in the apparel retail industry.

Despite its strengths, Ross Stores’ stock has tanked 21.4% from its all-time high of $163.60 touched on Aug. 23, 2024. Meanwhile, ROST dropped 16.4% over the past three months, performing marginally better than the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund’s (XLY) 17% decline during the same time frame.

Over the longer term, ROST’s performance looks much grimmer. ROST has dropped 14.9% over the past six months and 11.8% over the past 52 weeks, significantly underperforming XLY’s 3.9% gains over the past six months and 9.2% returns over the past year.

To confirm the downturn, ROST has traded consistently below its 200-day moving average since early February and mostly below its 50-day moving average since late January with some fluctuations.

Ross Stores’ stock rose nearly 2% in the trading session after the release of its mixed Q4 results on Mar. 4. The company reported a notable 3% year-over-year growth in comps, however, the year-ago quarter consisted of 14 weeks, one more compared to the recent quarter, this led to a 1.8% year-over-year decline in overall topline to $5.9 billion, which missed the Street’s expectations by a small margin. Meanwhile, the company also observed a 3.8% decline in net earnings to $586.8 million, but its EPS of $1.79 surpassed the consensus estimates by a notable 8.5%.

Although the company benefited from the holiday selling period in Q4, its sales have begun softening since the start of the calendar year 2025 due to unseasonable weather and a volatile macro environment. Because of this, Ross Stores expects its comps for Q1 2025 to remain flat or decrease up to 3%. However, the sales may improve in the quarters following Q1.

Ross Stores has significantly underperformed its peer The TJX Companies, Inc.’s (TJX) 1.5% dip over the past six months and 20.4% surge over the past 52-week period.

Nevertheless, analysts remain optimistic about the company’s prospects. ROST has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating among the 21 analysts covering the stock. Its mean price target of $161.53 indicates a 25.6% upside potential from current price levels.