Ross doubles down on store growth

Ross Stores just told investors it plans to open about 110 stores in fiscal 2026, even after finishing fiscal 2025 with 2,273 locations and record annual sales of $22.8 billion. In March, it had already started that push by opening 17 stores across 11 states. (stocktitan.net, stocktitan.net) Wall Street liked the bet enough to push Ross shares to a fresh high in early April, with Investing.com reporting the stock touched about $216.89 and later citing a higher all-time mark near $222.16. The move came after a one-year gain of roughly 69 to 71 percent, depending on the date of the snapshot. (investing.com, investing.com, investing.com) Ross is not a department store chain in the old mall sense. It is an off-price retailer, which means it buys branded clothing and home goods at discounts and sells them in simpler stores with fewer fixtures, less labor, and faster inventory turns. (companiesmarketcap.com, stocktitan.net) That model works best when shoppers feel squeezed. Ross said same-store sales rose 9 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, while earnings per share reached $2.00 and beat the company’s own guidance. (stocktitan.net, marketbeat.com) The store plan also got bigger. Ross added 90 net new stores in fiscal 2025, then raised the pace for fiscal 2026 to about 110, including about 85 Ross Dress for Less stores and 25 dd’s DISCOUNTS stores. (stocktitan.net, stocktitan.net, fool.com) The dd’s DISCOUNTS piece is the tell. Ross ran 1,917 Ross stores and 366 dd’s DISCOUNTS stores after those spring openings, so the smaller chain is still a fraction of the total base but is getting a much faster opening pace in 2026. (stocktitan.net) This is happening while very little new retail space is being built in the United States. CoStar said only 64.2 million square feet of retail space was under construction in the first quarter of 2026, down from about 70 million a year earlier and far below the 10-year average of more than 90 million square feet. (costargroup.com, commercialobserver.com) When fewer new shopping centers get built, the chains that already have scale get first pick of the leftover space. Ross can take over second-generation boxes, spread distribution costs across more than 2,200 stores, and enter markets where a smaller rival would need an entirely new supply chain. That is an inference from Ross’s footprint and CoStar’s construction data, rather than a direct company quote. (stocktitan.net, costargroup.com) Ross is also expanding from a position of cash flow, not desperation. The company paired its record sales with a new $2.55 billion share repurchase authorization and a 10 percent dividend increase to $0.445 per share, which means management is funding growth while still sending more cash back to shareholders. (stocktitan.net) The simplest way to read the story is this: Ross sees enough value-conscious demand to add roughly 5 percent more stores in a year when new retail supply is still scarce. In a market with fewer freshly built storefronts, the winner is often the chain that already has the trucks, buyers, landlords, and balance sheet in place. (stocktitan.net, costargroup.com, commercialobserver.com)