Ross Stores, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the raw stores first quarter 2026 earnings release conference call the call will be given prepared comments by management father a question and answer session. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Before we get started, on behalf of raw stores, I would like to note that the comments made on this call will contain forward looking statements regarding expectations about future growth and financial results. including sales and earnings forecasts, new store openings, and other matters that are based on the company's current forecast of aspects of its future business. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical performance or current expectations. Risk factors are included in today's press release and the company's fiscal 2025 Form 10-K and fiscal 2026 Form 8-Ks on file with the SEC. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Jim Conroy, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone.

Joining me on our call today are Michael Hartshorn, Group President and Chief Operating Officer, Bill Sheehan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Connie Cao, Senior Vice President, Industrial Relations. Before we walk through the results, I would like to thank our associates for an exceptional first quarter. The entire organization contributed to the very strong performance. Our marketing team drove strong customer acquisition and engagement through a combination of creative messaging and changes to our media mix. Our merchants and planners delivered compelling assortments and worked tirelessly to secure product to feed the outside demand. Our supply chain network stepped up their efforts to keep the stores in stock in a timely manner. And finally, our stores team executed extremely well in supporting the increased product flow and customer activity. It was a remarkable group effort, and I couldn't be more proud of the teamwork demonstrated across the entire organization. Thank you to the entire team. I will now turn to our first quarter results. We delivered in an outstanding quarter with total sales of 21% and earnings per share growth of 37%. The overall growth in total sales was driven by a very robust 17% increase in comparable store sales. While we attribute a portion of this growth to the increase in tax refunds versus last year, we are quite pleased that the underlying fundamentals of our growth were extremely healthy. The comp increase was primarily driven by a growth in transactions, and we saw healthy increases in customer count on a comp store basis across income levels, ethnicities, and all age groups, including the young customer. In terms of monthly cadence, the quarter started strongly as we transitioned well from the holiday selling season into spring, supported by more balanced inventory levels that allowed us to drive strong demand in February, where we historically struggled. The spring continued with solid mid-teen comps for the balance of the quarter. Performance at Ross was broad-based across both merchandise areas and geographies. While ladies and cosmetics were our strongest businesses, every major merchandise category posted comp growth in the teens or higher. Similarly, we saw strength across the entire country with the Midwest performing the best. These discounts also delivered solid top-line sales with strong performance across merchandise categories and geographic regions. Moving to inventory, consolidated inventories at the end of the quarter were up 12%, and takeaway represented 36% of total inventory compared with 41% last year. We are pleased with the overall level and composition of our inventory entering the second quarter. Turning to store growth, we expanded into new and existing markets and opened 13 new Ross and four DDs discounts locations in the first quarter. We continue to plan for 5% unit growth for approximately 110 new stores this year, comprised of about 85 Ross and 25 DDs. As usual, these numbers do not reflect our plans to close or relocate about 10 to 15 older stores. Consistent with our performance in 2025, we continue to be encouraged by the strength of the store openings in both new and existing markets. Overall, we remain confident in our fundamental strategy to better connect merchandising, marketing, and stores to create an improved customer experience. While the initial results are quite encouraging, we believe we are still in the early stages with many of our initiatives and see opportunities to drive continued growth in sales going forward. Now, Bill will provide further details on our first quarter results and additional color on our second quarter outlook.