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Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

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Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

General information. See the information set forth under the caption "Quarterly Financial Data (Unaudited)" under Note K of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report, which is incorporated herein by reference. Our stock is traded on The NASDAQ Global Select Market® under the symbol ROST. There were 822 stockholders of record as of March 12, 2014 and the closing stock price on that date was $72.38 per share.

Cash dividends. In February 2014, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per common share, payable on March 31, 2014. Our Board of Directors declared cash dividends of $0.17 per common share in January, May, August, and November 2013, cash dividends of $0.14 per common share in January, May, August, and November 2012, and cash dividends of $0.11 per common share in January, May, August, and November 2011.

Issuer purchases of equity securities. Information regarding shares of common stock we repurchased during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 is as follows:

PeriodTotal number of shares (or units) purchased¹Average price paid per share (or unit)Total number of shares (or units) purchased as part of publicly announced plans or programsMaximum number (or approximate dollar value) of shares (or units) that may yet be purchased under the plans or programs ($000)
November
(11/03/2013 - 11/30/2013)331,931$77.98329,948$652,900
December
(12/01/2013 - 01/04/2014)799,775$73.11791,782$595,000
January
(01/05/2014 - 02/01/2014)633,334$71.11633,215$550,000
Total1,765,040$73.311,754,945$550,000²
1We acquired 10,095 shares of treasury stock during the quarter ended February 1, 2014. Treasury stock includes shares purchased from employees for tax withholding purposes related to vesting of restricted stock grants. All remaining shares were repurchased under our publicly announced stock repurchase program.
2In January 2013, our Board of Directors approved a two-year $1.1 billion stock repurchase program for fiscal 2013 and 2014.

See Note H of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for equity compensation plan information. The information under Item 12 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the caption “Equity compensation plan information” is incorporated herein by reference.

Stockholder Return Performance Graph

The following information in this Item 5 shall not be deemed filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Act of 1934, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933.

Total stockholder returns for our common stock outperformed the Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) 500 Index and the S&P Retailing Group over the last five years as set forth in the graph below. The cumulative total return listed below assumed an initial investment of $100 and reinvestment of dividends at each fiscal year end and measures the performance of this investment as of the last trading day in the month of January for each of the following five years. These measurement dates are based on the historical month-end data available and may vary slightly from our actual fiscal year-end date for each period. Data with respect to returns for the S&P indexes is not readily available for periods shorter than one month. The graph is a historical representation of past performance only and is not necessarily indicative of future performance.

COMPARISON OF 5 YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN

Among Ross Stores, Inc., the S&P 500 Index, and S&P Retailing Group

Indexed Returns for Years Ended
Base Period
Company / Index200920102011201220132014
Ross Stores, Inc.100158228360422487
S&P 500 Index100133163170198241
S&P Retailing Group100158205238307388

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