Ross Stores (ROST) Earnings: Q2 Fiscal 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended August 1, 2026 and Ross Stores published the results on August 20, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q2 fiscal 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• Q2 fiscal 2026 includes a benefit of about $253 million, recorded in cost of goods sold, from refunds of IEEPA tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that those tariffs were not authorized. Ross Stores puts the benefit to diluted EPS at about $0.60.
• Ross Stores' fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31. Q2 fiscal 2026 is the 13 weeks ended August 1, 2026. Ross reports results in thousands of dollars; figures here are in millions.

Source: Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 results, August 20, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended August 1, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

From the earnings release

In its Q2 fiscal 2026 release (Jim Conroy, Chief Executive Officer), Ross Stores said:

“Comparable store sales are now expected to increase 6% to 7% in the third quarter and 4% to 5% in the fourth quarter.”

“If the second half of 2026 performs in line with these sales projections, our earnings per share ranges for the third and fourth quarters are projected to be $1.75 to $1.83 and $2.17 to $2.26, respectively.”

“Based on our strong first half results and our updated second half guidance, we are increasing our 2026 fiscal year earnings per share projections to be in the range of $8.61 to $8.77, which again includes an approximate $0.60 earnings per share benefit from IEEPA tariff refunds recognized in the second quarter.”

“As a result, we are increasing our 2026 new store opening plan to 115 locations, consisting of approximately 90 Ross Dress for Less and 25 dd's DISCOUNTS stores.”

Source: Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Aug 20, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the ROST forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

Sales and GAAP diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release. Ross Stores reports only GAAP results.

Ross Stores's next report is scheduled for November 19, 2026. This page will show Q2 fiscal 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q2 fiscal 2026 (this page), reported Aug 20, 2026

Ross Stores sales rose 13% to $6.3 billion in Q2 fiscal 2026, from $5.5 billion a year earlier. Comparable store sales rose 10%, on top of a 2% gain in the year-ago quarter, and Ross said the gain was primarily driven by customer traffic. (Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026)

The 10-Q breaks the increase of about $736 million into $534 million from comparable stores and $202 million from non-comparable stores. Within the 10% comparable gain, traffic rose about 7% and the average basket about 3%. Ross counts a store as comparable once it has been open for 14 complete months. (Ross Stores Form 10-Q, Q2 fiscal 2026, Sep 1, 2026)

Ross sells apparel and home goods off-price through two chains, Ross Dress for Less and dd's DISCOUNTS, which it aggregates into one reportable segment. By merchandise category, Home Accents and Bed and Bath was 24% of Q2 sales, Ladies 23%, Men's 16%, Accessories, Lingerie, Fine Jewelry, and Cosmetics 15%, Shoes 13% and Children's 9%. (Ross Stores Form 10-Q, Q2 fiscal 2026, Sep 1, 2026)

Ross Dress for Less sells at 20% to 60% off department and specialty store regular prices and targets customers primarily from middle income households; dd's DISCOUNTS sells at 20% to 70% off and targets households with lower to more moderate incomes. Ross ended the quarter with 2,328 stores, against 2,233 a year earlier, after opening 47 in the quarter (35 Ross and 12 dd's DISCOUNTS). (Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026; Ross Stores Form 10-K, fiscal 2025, Mar 31, 2026)

Ross Stores reports only GAAP figures. Diluted EPS was $2.66 in Q2 fiscal 2026, against $1.56 a year earlier, and included a benefit of about $0.60 per share from about $253 million of IEEPA tariff refunds recorded in cost of goods sold. Ross had guided to EPS of $1.85 to $1.93 for the quarter. (Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026; Ross Stores Form 10-Q, Q2 fiscal 2026, Sep 1, 2026)

Operating margin was 17.6%, against 11.5% a year earlier. The tariff refunds contributed 405 basis points; merchandise margin added 110 basis points and distribution costs fell 100 basis points, partly offset by higher domestic freight (10 basis points) and buying costs (5 basis points). The effective tax rate was about 25.0%, up from 24.2%, which Ross attributed to the resolution of tax positions with various tax authorities. (Ross Stores Form 10-Q, Q2 fiscal 2026, Sep 1, 2026)

Diluted weighted average shares were 319,450 thousand, against 324,796 thousand a year earlier. Ross repurchased 1.4 million shares for $319 million in the quarter under a two-year $2.55 billion authorization approved in March 2026, and said it remains on track to buy back $1.275 billion of stock in fiscal 2026. (Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Ross Stores gives comparable store sales and EPS ranges for the coming quarters in its release. After Q2 fiscal 2026 it guided Q3 comparable store sales up 6% to 7% and EPS of $1.75 to $1.83, and Q4 comparable store sales up 4% to 5% and EPS of $2.17 to $2.26. (Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026)

Ross Stores raised its fiscal 2026 EPS range to $8.61 to $8.77, which includes the roughly $0.60 tariff refund benefit, and said it was raising its outlook for both the third and fourth quarters despite more challenging year-over-year comparisons in the back half. It also raised its 2026 new store plan to 115 locations, about 90 Ross Dress for Less and 25 dd's DISCOUNTS. (Ross Stores Q2 fiscal 2026 release, Aug 20, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Ross Stores, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Ross Stores's own release and filings put weight on for Q2 fiscal 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning ROST is on is ROST a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the ROST forecast, and what the company does is on the Ross Stores (ROST) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Ross Stores published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.