Ross Stores (ROST) Competitors

GAP (NYSE:GPS) and Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, media sentiment and earnings.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GPS or ROST?

GAP received 225 more outperform votes than Ross Stores when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.06% of users gave Ross Stores an outperform vote while only 52.13% of users gave GAP an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
GAP	Outperform Votes 1200 52.13%	Underperform Votes 1102 47.87%
Ross Stores	Outperform Votes 975 64.06%	Underperform Votes 547 35.94%

Do analysts recommend GPS or ROST?

GAP presently has a consensus price target of $27.08, indicating a potential upside of 0.00%. Ross Stores has a consensus price target of $170.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.83%. Given Ross Stores' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ross Stores is more favorable than GAP.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GAP	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53
Ross Stores	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82

Which has more volatility & risk, GPS or ROST?

GAP has a beta of 2.38, meaning that its share price is 138% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ross Stores has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in GPS or ROST?

58.8% of GAP shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.9% of Ross Stores shares are owned by institutional investors. 30.8% of GAP shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Ross Stores shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is GPS or ROST a better dividend stock?

GAP pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share. Ross Stores pays an annual dividend of $1.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. GAP pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ross Stores pays out 23.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Ross Stores is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is GPS or ROST more profitable?

Ross Stores has a net margin of 9.82% compared to GAP's net margin of 4.52%. Ross Stores' return on equity of 42.43% beat GAP's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GAP	4.52%	27.57%	6.30%
Ross Stores	9.82%	42.43%	14.35%

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, GPS or ROST?

Ross Stores has higher revenue and earnings than GAP. GAP is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ross Stores, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GAP	$15.00B	0.00	$502M	$1.80	N/A
Ross Stores	$21.09B	2.21	$1.87B	$6.20	22.69

Does the media prefer GPS or ROST?

In the previous week, Ross Stores had 19 more articles in the media than GAP. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Ross Stores and 5 mentions for GAP. Ross Stores' average media sentiment score of 0.67 beat GAP's score of -0.16 indicating that Ross Stores is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
GAP	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Ross Stores	12 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Ross Stores beats GAP on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.