Ross Stores, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates off-price retail apparel and home fashion stores under the Ross Dress for Less and dd's DISCOUNTS brands in the United States. The company offers apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions products. It sells its products to middle income households and households with lower to more moderate incomes. Ross Stores, Inc. was incorporated …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
ROIC Sustainably Above PeersROIC at 86.2th percentile exceeds peers and WACC, demonstrating superior capital allocation.
Cost Leadership PositionOperating margin at 87.9th percentile with strong OpEx control demonstrates cost leadership.
Key risks
Revenue Volatility Signals Weak StickinessRevenue volatility is high (stability score 0.30), suggesting weak customer stickiness.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Ross Stores, Inc. ranks #5 of 34
scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score — the top 15%.
The widest moat in the group is lululemon athletica inc. (LULU)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near ROST in Apparel Retail
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 92
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 68
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 88
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 76
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 59
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) scores 75 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #5 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail, the top 15%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (92/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (59/100).
How does Ross Stores, Inc. compare with other Apparel Retail companies?
Ross Stores, Inc. ranks #5 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score. The widest moat in Apparel Retail is lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (BOOT) at 76 just above it and TJX Companies, Inc. (The) (TJX) at 74 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Ross Stores, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Ross Stores, Inc.?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and ROST scores: Pricing Power (69), Cost Advantage (92), Customer Stickiness (68), Capital Efficiency (88), Resilience (76), Scale & Market Position (59). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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