DUBLIN, Calif. (AP) _ Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) on Thursday reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $131.2 million.

On a per-share basis, the Dublin, California-based company said it had net income of 37 cents. Earnings, adjusted to extinguish debt, came to $1.02 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 63 cents per share.

The discount retailer posted revenue of $3.75 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.46 billion.

Ross Stores shares have fallen slightly more than 5% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 11%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $110.22, a decrease of 2% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ROST at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ROST

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