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 847 stockholders of record as of March 6, 2017 and the closing stock price on that date was $67.40 per share.

Cash dividends. On February 28, 2017, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.1600 per common share, payable on March 31, 2017. Our Board of Directors declared cash dividends of $0.1350 per common share in March, May, August, and November 2016, cash dividends of $0.1175 per common share in February, May, August, and November 2015, and cash dividends of $0.1000 per common share in February, May, August, and November 2014.

Issuer purchases of equity securities. Information regarding shares of common stock we repurchased during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 is as follows:

In February 2017, our Board of Directors approved a new, two-year $1.75 billion stock repurchase program through fiscal 2018.

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.

The graph below compares total stockholder returns over the last five years for our common stock with the Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) 500 Index and the S&P Retailing Group. 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