“I would say over the long term, we can -- we believe we can achieve gradual improvement in profitability.”

In context

“ersus SG&A. Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Alex Straton with Morgan Stanley. Alexandra Straton: Perfect. Super amazing [ trend ]. It looks like you guys are further closing the gap to pre-COVID EBIT with every passing quarter, even though fourth quarter still sits somewhat below. So can you just talk about what's hampering you from returning to the pre-COVID levels and how you think about recovering that gap from here? And then maybe Barbara, a big picture question for you. What are your key priorities for the year as you think about Ross? Michael Hartshorn: Alex, it's Michael Hartshorn. On the long-term kind of what it's going to take to close the EBIT margin gap. Obviously, the biggest drivers are where wages and freight has been over the last couple of years. I would say over the long term, we can -- we believe we can achieve gradual improvement in profitability. As always, EBIT growth will be highly dependent on sustained strong sales growth. We believe the improvements we've made and continue to make to strengthen our value offerings will lead to market share gains in the long run. I'll also say we're investing in capabilities to drive efficiencies and related cost savings that we believe will contribute to profitability as well over time. As you can see in this year's guidance, our EBIT leverage is around 3% with double-digit EPS growth at the top end of that 2% to 3% range on a 52-week basis. Over the long term, we think we can get leverage in the 3% to 4% comp range. Barbara Rentler: And in terms of priorities, our priority this year is really to gain market share through a diligent execution of the strategy. We've done a lot of work around”