UPDATE: Credit Suisse Downgrades Ross Stores on Strong Economic Model, But Has Reached Price Target

In a report published Wednesday, Credit Suisse analyst Michael Exstein downgraded the rating on Ross Stores (NASDAQ: ROST) from Outperform to Neutral, but reiterated the $75.00 price target.In the report, Credit Suisse noted, “We continue to view ROST as a great economic business model that happens to be a retailer, and we see no structural change to the business that makes it less attractive going forward. That said, valuation is to the point where it is difficult for us to be constructive on the name in the short term given ROST's decelerating EPS, and we believe investors are now paying a premium for growth in both square footage and EPS. Since January, ROST shares have benefited from two events: (1) concerns about December monthly sales comparisons with TJMaxx, which came in inline, and (2) more recently, the favoring of off-price over traditional department stores that began to take place at the end of June. Neither event is likely to reoccur, making further outperformance more difficult. With this in mind, we maintain our target price of $75 and downgrade to NEUTRAL.”Ross Stores closed on Tuesday at $73.25.