Ross Stores Q4 2005 Earning Conference Call Transcript (ROST)

Ross Stores (ROST)
Q4 2005 Earnings Conference Call
March 15, 2006, 11:00 a.m. EST

Executives:

Michael Balmuth, Vice Chairman, President and CEO
Norman A. Ferber, Chairman of the Board, Ross Stores, Inc.
Gary L. Cribb, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer
Michael B. O’Sullivan, Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer
John G. Call, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Katie Loughnot, Vice President of Investor Relations

Analysts:

Jeff Black, Lehman Brothers
Jeffrey Klinefelter, Piper Jaffray
Kimberly Greenberger, Citigroup
Paul Lejuez, Credit Suisse-North America
Richard Jaffe, Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc.
Michelle Clark, Morgan Stanley
Margaret Mager, Goldman Sachs & Co.
Marni Shapiro, Merrill Lynch
Patrick McKeever, Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey
Ben Storm, Variant Research Corporation
David Mann, Johnson Rice & Company
Dana Telsey, Telsey Advisory

Presentation

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to the Ross Stores’ 4th Quarter and Fiscal 2005 Earnings Release Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. The call will begin with prepared comments by Michael Balmuth, Vice Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, followed by a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, please press “*