“Net interest income is estimated to be $44 million.”

In context

“omparable store sales for the 13 weeks ending May 4, 2024, to be up 2% to 3% versus a 1% gain in last year's first quarter. If sales perform in line with this range, we expect earnings per share for the first quarter of 2024 to be $1.29 to $1.35 versus $1.09 last year. The operating statement assumptions that support our first quarter guidance include the following: total sales are planned to be up 6% to 8% versus last year's first quarter. We would then expect first quarter operating margin to be 11.1% to 11.4% compared to 10.1% last year. The expected increase mainly reflects our forecast for lower incentives and freight costs that are partially offset by lower merchandise margin and higher wages. We plan to add 18 new stores consisting of 11 Ross and 7 dd's DISCOUNTS during the period. Net interest income is estimated to be $44 million. Our tax rate is expected to be approximately 24% to 25% and diluted shares are forecasted to be about $335 million. Now I'll turn the call back to Barbara Rentler for closing comments. Barbara Rentler: Thank you, Adam. To sum up, as Adam noted, while we hope to do better than our forecast this year, the external environment remains uncertain and our low to moderate income customers' discretionary spend continues to be impacted by elevated cost of living. Despite these headwinds last year, our shoppers responded positively to the strong values we offered across our stores which drove our better-than-expected sales and earnings growth throughout 2023. In 2024, we plan to build upon these efforts and offer even more brands that are sharply priced to deliver the strong value proposition”