Investing.com -- Shares in Ross Stores Inc (NASDAQ:ROST) rose by nearly 3% in after-hours trading after the California-based department store beat analysts' second quarter earnings and revenue forecasts on Thursday night, defying an industry-wide trend of declining sales for the period.
Over the company's second quarter of 2016, Ross Stores finished with revenues of $3.18 billion, up substantially by 7.2% from the same period a year earlier. For the quarter, Ross Stores saw its comparable store sales surge by 4%, topping analysts' forecasts for a 2.1% gain. Numerous competitors in the retail space have suffered steep comparable store declines throughout the quarter, as customers continue to abandon brick-and-mortar shops for more convenient purchasing opportunities online.
At the same time, the company reported earnings of $281.9 million or 0.71 per share, up from net profits of $258.6 or 0.63 from the second quarter of 2015. Consequently, Ross Stores has reported earnings per share of $1.44 through the first half of the year, up 9% on an annual basis. In Fiscal Year 2015, the company increased earnings per share by 15%.
Analysts expected to see revenues of $3.13 billion on earnings per share of 0.67 for Ross Stores' second quarter.
"Both sales and earnings results in the second quarter were ahead of our forecast. Higher merchandise gross margin during the quarter drove a 50 basis point increase in operating margin to 14.4%, up from 13.9% in the same period last year," said Barbara Rentler, CEO Ross Stores.
Moving forward, Ross Stores anticipates same store sales gains of 1-2% over the third quarter, along with earnings per share between 0.52-0.55. For the company's fourth quarter ending in January, 2017, Ross Stores expects to achieve comparable store sales growth of 1-2% and earnings per share of 0.73-0.76.
Ross Stores shares jumped by 1.72 or 2.74% to 64.60 in after-hours.