ROST vs COST Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Compare Ross Stores' off-price apparel treasure-hunt model against Costco's membership-fee-driven warehouse retail.
Use this Ross Stores vs Costco comparison to evaluate the key differences across valuation, growth, profitability, and risk before making an investment decision.
ROST holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. ROST leads on both 1-year return (+46.94%) and forward P/E quality (25.61x vs 41.72x for COST), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, COST is growing revenue faster (21.50%), while ROST maintains the higher operating margin (17.62%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for ROST (+18.11%) than for COST (+13.94%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
| Metric | ROST | COST |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 56.1 | 63.7 |
| AI ranki | #211 | #93 |
| Latest closei | $229.30 | $1,003.32 |
| 1M returni | -2.00% | +10.90% |
| 3M returni | -4.01% | +7.30% |
| 6M returni | +1.29% | -0.77% |
| 1Y returni | +46.94% | +6.21% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | ROST | COST |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $14.64K (+46.4%) started 2025-10-23 | $10.65K (+6.5%) started 2025-10-23 |
| 5Y ago | $22.02K (+120.2%) started 2021-10-25 | $22.48K (+124.8%) started 2021-10-25 |
| 10Y ago | $42.93K (+329.3%) started 2016-10-24 | $92.12K (+821.2%) started 2016-10-24 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | ROST | COST |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $73.31B | $419.3B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 27.64 | 47.63 |
| Forward P/Ei | 25.61 | 41.72 |
| Price/Salesi | 2.22 | 1.67 |
| EV/Revenuei | 2.98 | 1.42 |
| Analyst targeti | $269.94 | $1,077.31 |
| Target upsidei | +18.11% | +13.94% |
| Metric | ROST | COST |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 13.30% | 21.50% |
| Earnings growthi | 70.50% | 45.50% |
| EPS growthi | +70.50% | +45.50% |
| FCF margini | +8.80% | +2.37% |
| Operating margini | 17.62% | 3.67% |
| Profit margini | 10.85% | 3.01% |
| ROIC proxyi | 42.63% | 29.15% |
| Return on equityi | 42.63% | 29.15% |
| Dividend yieldi | 0.78% | 0.62% |
| Payout ratioi | 20.56% | 26.69% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | No increase yet |
| Betai | 0.88 | 0.86 |
| Debt/equityi | 70.28 | 60.26 |
| Current ratioi | 1.61 | 1.07 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.93 | 0.56 |
Over the past year, ROST and COST have moved weakly in the same direction (correlation of 0.16), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | ROST | COST |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +46.37% | +6.50% |
| CAGRi | +46.45% | +6.51% | |
| Volatilityi | 26.27% | 19.77% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 1.42 | 0.19 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 2.33 | 0.27 | |
| Max drawdowni | 13.03% | 18.33% | |
| Current drawdowni | 10.16% | 8.32% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 3.40% | 7.42% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 5.17% | 9.39% | |
| Max daily dropi | 5.89% | 4.21% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 11.87% | 8.96% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +111.16% | +114.47% |
| CAGRi | +16.14% | +16.50% | |
| Volatilityi | 29.55% | 22.94% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.51 | 0.59 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.73 | 0.82 | |
| Max drawdowni | 40.72% | 31.40% | |
| Current drawdowni | 10.16% | 8.32% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 9.05% | 9.63% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 12.75% | 11.77% | |
| Max daily dropi | 22.47% | 12.45% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 21.93% | 16.26% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +293.21% | +675.15% |
| CAGRi | +14.68% | +22.73% | |
| Volatilityi | 31.86% | 22.06% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.45 | 0.84 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.65 | 1.20 | |
| Max drawdowni | 51.41% | 31.40% | |
| Current drawdowni | 10.16% | 8.32% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 10.56% | 6.97% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 14.71% | 9.44% | |
| Max daily dropi | 22.47% | 12.45% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 38.97% | 16.26% |
| Category | ROST | COST |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ROST | COST |
| Sector | Consumer Cyclical | Consumer Defensive |
| Industry | Apparel Retail | Discount Stores |
| Core business | 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. | Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Chi… |
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