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 817 stockholders of record as of March 9, 2015 and the closing stock price on that date was $105.45 per share.

Cash dividends. In February 2015, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.235 per common share, payable on March 31, 2015. Our Board of Directors declared cash dividends of $0.20 per common share in February, May, August, and November 2014, cash dividends of $0.17 per common share in January, May, August, and November 2013, and cash dividends of $0.14 per common share in January, May, August, and November 2012.

Stock dividends. In March 2015, our Board of Directors approved a two-for-one stock split in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend, to be paid on June 11, 2015 to stockholders of record as of April 22, 2015. The stock split will not have an impact on our consolidated financial position or results of operations. Share and per share amounts have not been restated to reflect the pending stock split.

Issuer purchases of equity securities. Information regarding shares of common stock we repurchased during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 is as follows:

In February 2015, our Board of Directors approved a new two-year $1.4 billion stock repurchase program for fiscal 2015 and 2016.

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