Ross Stores (ROST)

The sleeper story is store labor productivity gains - they're driving 7-8% Q1 comp guidance with zero incremental investment in marketing or store labor as a rate of sales. That's a structural improvement the market isn't focused on. The 9% Q4 beat is nice, but embedding 3-4% full year 2026 guidance suggests they either see the gains as unsustainable or they're being very conservative. The binding constraint is management's deliberate opacity on their best metrics - when Hartshorn won't quantify Northeast performance twice, it usually means it's working too well to share. Conroy's most revealing quote: 'We do not intend to buy the comp...we're getting really nice growth without unnecessary artificial investments.' My view changes if Northeast productivity comes in below 90% of chain average or if Q1 comp growth decelerates below 6%.