# Cato (CATO.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/CATO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:27:15.342Z. Financial observations: FY1997–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $2.36 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 8 revenue declines in the last 10 years

- more than 5 revenue declines in ten years

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 8

- Years with a net loss: 4

- Operating margin variation: 104.10×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.06×

- FY2018: 0.02×

- FY2019: 0.04×

- FY2020: 0.05×

- FY2021: -0.11×

- FY2022: 0.05×

- FY2023: -0.00×

- FY2024: -0.02×

- FY2025: -0.04×

- FY2026: -0.02×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: 4.3%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -9.3%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 0.4 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 32.8%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 32.5%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 1.3%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 5.8%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 39.6%

- FY2018: 9.4%

- FY2019: 25.0%

- FY2020: 9.9%

- FY2021: -16.7%

- FY2022: 13.1%

- FY2023: -0.8%

- FY2024: -5.6%

- FY2025: -9.3%

- FY2026: -4.8%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$6.8M

- Net income, five-year total: -$12M

- Return on incremental invested capital: 0.0%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.2 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -1.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 6.6%

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2022: $43M

- FY2023: -$8.3M

- FY2024: -$25M

- FY2025: -$17M

- FY2026: $314K

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2017 to 2026 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 25.0% vs -5.6%

- Per-share earnings: 1.72 to -0.97 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: -3.7%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -3.6%

- Market cap gain: -$624M

- Cumulative retained earnings: -$263M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -3.7%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -3.6%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2017

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2026

- Per-share value change: -$2.69

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: $1.72

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$0.97

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.05

- Average buyback yield: 5.7%

- Buyback history: 10 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: $21M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $61M

- ROIC, first three-year median: 25.0%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -5.6%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: $1.72

- FY2018: $0.34

- FY2019: $1.23

- FY2020: $1.46

- FY2021: -$2.01

- FY2022: $1.65

- FY2023: $0.00

- FY2024: -$1.17

- FY2025: -$0.97

- FY2026: -$0.31

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -1.1%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.03×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.00×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -4.3%

- FY2018: -5.4%

- FY2019: -6.1%

- FY2020: -2.7%

- FY2021: -2.5%

- FY2022: -3.9%

- FY2023: -2.4%

- FY2024: -4.7%

- FY2025: 0.3%

- FY2026: -1.1%

## Holders

- [Donald Yacktman](https://gigainvestors.com/YAM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 87% since Oct 2021 · "Cato's Q2 Earnings Down Y/Y on Lower Consumer Spending" (finance.yahoo.com, Aug 2026) · sales +0.6%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:27.888Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2026-05-27: Cato Q1 Earnings Surge Year Over Year on Tariff Refunds ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/cato-q1-earnings-surge-over-172800524.html))

- 2026-08-26: Cato's Q2 Earnings Down Y/Y on Lower Consumer Spending ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/catos-q2-earnings-down-y-163200217.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +0.6%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm; observed 2026-03-25.

- FY2017: $957M 

- FY2018: $850M 

- FY2019: $830M 

- FY2020: $825M 

- FY2021: $575M 

- FY2022: $769M 

- FY2023: $759M 

- FY2024: $708M 

- FY2025: $650M 

- FY2026: $654M 

### Gross margin · FY2026

gross margin 32.5%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm; observed 2026-03-25.

- FY2017: 34.7% 

- FY2018: 32.6% 

- FY2019: 35.0% 

- FY2020: 36.5% 

- FY2021: 22.1% 

- FY2022: 39.5% 

- FY2023: 31.4% 

- FY2024: 33.0% 

- FY2025: 31.3% 

- FY2026: 32.5% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in apparel retail; annual sales are USD 653.8 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-25); FY2026: revenue 653812000; grossProfit 212275000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 31.3% to 33% during 2024–26; it earns 4.3% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 33%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 31.3%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-25); FY2026: grossProfit / revenue = 32.5%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); 10-year return on capital observations [[2017,0.39611838190828247],[2018,0.09375222059164286],[2019,0.24996150034461653],[2020,0.09853768444004354],[2021,-0.16741283768929352],[2022,0.131024579804124],[2023,-0.00753419892703784],[2024,-0.05556616767701761],[2025,-0.09286758644626665],[2026,-0.048426071552022124]]; median 0.04310901083230251. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 9 of 10 years; bought back USD 995000 of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2017: growth capex 0; upkeep 27297000; owner earnings 41675000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2018: growth capex 0; upkeep 11096000; owner earnings 16915000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2019: growth capex 0; upkeep 4354000; owner earnings 41708000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2020: growth capex 0; upkeep 8306000; owner earnings 41796000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 4105000; owner earnings 43158000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-25); FY2026: growth capex 0; upkeep 3763000; owner earnings 314000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); Dividend observations: [[2017,35432000],[2018,33731000],[2019,32577000],[2020,32592000],[2021,7912000],[2022,9972000],[2023,14369000],[2024,13954000],[2025,10516000],[2026,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-25); FY2026: cash repurchases 995000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 13.9% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-04); CATO.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 13.896 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-04.

### What the price says

The price is 0.1 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-25); Closing price 2.36 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2026 annual sales per share 34.80190266781656; price multiple 0.06781238435513572. FY2026 cash earnings/share 0.01671397502293381. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $29.67 per share

- 2016-11: $29.60 per share

- 2016-12: $30.08 per share

- 2017-01: $25.39 per share

- 2017-02: $25.01 per share

- 2017-03: $21.96 per share

- 2017-04: $22.56 per share

- 2017-05: $20.16 per share

- 2017-06: $17.59 per share

- 2017-07: $17.01 per share

- 2017-08: $13.16 per share

- 2017-09: $13.23 per share

- 2017-10: $12.86 per share

- 2017-11: $15.78 per share

- 2017-12: $15.92 per share

- 2018-01: $11.88 per share

- 2018-02: $11.36 per share

- 2018-03: $14.74 per share

- 2018-04: $16.21 per share

- 2018-05: $22.83 per share

- 2018-06: $24.62 per share

- 2018-07: $24.90 per share

- 2018-08: $21.45 per share

- 2018-09: $21.02 per share

- 2018-10: $19.28 per share

- 2018-11: $15.11 per share

- 2018-12: $14.27 per share

- 2019-01: $14.85 per share

- 2019-02: $15.74 per share

- 2019-03: $14.98 per share

- 2019-04: $15.16 per share

- 2019-05: $12.39 per share

- 2019-06: $12.32 per share

- 2019-07: $14.37 per share

- 2019-08: $17.13 per share

- 2019-09: $17.61 per share

- 2019-10: $17.49 per share

- 2019-11: $19.06 per share

- 2019-12: $17.40 per share

- 2020-01: $16.04 per share

- 2020-02: $16.17 per share

- 2020-03: $10.67 per share

- 2020-04: $11.26 per share

- 2020-05: $9.70 per share

- 2020-06: $8.18 per share

- 2020-07: $7.19 per share

- 2020-08: $8.00 per share

- 2020-09: $7.82 per share

- 2020-10: $6.12 per share

- 2020-11: $8.06 per share

- 2020-12: $9.59 per share

- 2021-01: $11.37 per share

- 2021-02: $12.34 per share

- 2021-03: $12.00 per share

- 2021-04: $13.40 per share

- 2021-05: $15.46 per share

- 2021-06: $16.87 per share

- 2021-07: $16.50 per share

- 2021-08: $17.26 per share

- 2021-09: $16.54 per share

- 2021-10: $17.63 per share

- 2021-11: $16.45 per share

- 2021-12: $17.16 per share

- 2022-01: $16.52 per share

- 2022-02: $17.60 per share

- 2022-03: $14.66 per share

- 2022-04: $13.55 per share

- 2022-05: $13.05 per share

- 2022-06: $11.61 per share

- 2022-07: $12.35 per share

- 2022-08: $10.81 per share

- 2022-09: $9.54 per share

- 2022-10: $11.91 per share

- 2022-11: $10.40 per share

- 2022-12: $9.33 per share

- 2023-01: $9.94 per share

- 2023-02: $9.25 per share

- 2023-03: $8.84 per share

- 2023-04: $8.25 per share

- 2023-05: $8.06 per share

- 2023-06: $8.03 per share

- 2023-07: $8.50 per share

- 2023-08: $7.75 per share

- 2023-09: $7.66 per share

- 2023-10: $7.13 per share

- 2023-11: $6.92 per share

- 2023-12: $7.14 per share

- 2024-01: $6.76 per share

- 2024-02: $6.61 per share

- 2024-03: $5.77 per share

- 2024-04: $4.82 per share

- 2024-05: $6.00 per share

- 2024-06: $5.54 per share

- 2024-07: $5.12 per share

- 2024-08: $4.87 per share

- 2024-09: $4.99 per share

- 2024-10: $6.53 per share

- 2024-11: $3.19 per share

- 2024-12: $3.90 per share

- 2025-01: $3.35 per share

- 2025-02: $3.07 per share

- 2025-03: $3.33 per share

- 2025-04: $2.36 per share

- 2025-05: $2.56 per share

- 2025-06: $2.81 per share

- 2025-07: $2.82 per share

- 2025-08: $4.11 per share

- 2025-09: $4.21 per share

- 2025-10: $3.85 per share

- 2025-11: $3.50 per share

- 2025-12: $3.09 per share

- 2026-01: $3.05 per share

- 2026-02: $3.01 per share

- 2026-03: $2.83 per share

- 2026-04: $2.87 per share

- 2026-05: $3.24 per share

- 2026-06: $3.24 per share

- 2026-07: $3.42 per share

- 2026-08: $2.61 per share

- 2026-09: $2.39 per share

- 2026-10: $2.36 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2017: low $28.02 per share, central $30.93 per share, high $34.60 per share

- FY2018: low $24.95 per share, central $27.39 per share, high $30.65 per share

- FY2019: low $26.95 per share, central $29.57 per share, high $33.05 per share

- FY2020: low $27.35 per share, central $29.98 per share, high $33.49 per share

- FY2021: low $18.03 per share, central $19.70 per share, high $21.93 per share

- FY2022: low $27.14 per share, central $29.90 per share, high $33.58 per share

- FY2023: low $26.63 per share, central $29.51 per share, high $33.35 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/18255/000156276226000041/cato-20260131.htm); period 2026-01-31, filed 2026-03-25.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.

## Reported holder observations

- [Donald Yacktman](https://gigainvestors.com/YAM): 105,445 CATO shares; USD 342,000 reported position value; 0% of portfolio; hold; quarter 2026 Q2.

# CATO — Cato Corp. CL A

Held by 1 investor · USD 342,000 total · 2026 Q2 · reported price USD 3.24 (split-adjusted).
Page: https://gigainvestors.com/s/CATO

## Holders (2026 Q2)

| Investor | Value | % of their portfolio | This quarter |
|---|---:|---:|---|
| Donald Yacktman (https://gigainvestors.com/YAM) | USD 342,000 | 0.0% | hold |

## Total held by quarter

- 2021 Q1: USD 1,103,976 · 1 holder · USD 12.00
- 2021 Q2: USD 3,010,367 · 1 holder · USD 16.87
- 2021 Q3: USD 2,951,480 · 1 holder · USD 16.54
- 2021 Q4: USD 3,062,116 · 1 holder · USD 17.16
- 2022 Q1: USD 1,883,004 · 1 holder · USD 14.66
- 2022 Q2: USD 1,224,216 · 1 holder · USD 11.61
- 2022 Q3: USD 1,005,945 · 1 holder · USD 9.54
- 2022 Q4: USD 983,802 · 1 holder · USD 9.33
- 2023 Q1: USD 932,134 · 1 holder · USD 8.84
- 2023 Q2: USD 846,723 · 1 holder · USD 8.03
- 2023 Q3: USD 807,709 · 1 holder · USD 7.66
- 2023 Q4: USD 752,877 · 1 holder · USD 7.14
- 2024 Q1: USD 608,418 · 1 holder · USD 5.77
- 2024 Q2: USD 584,165 · 1 holder · USD 5.54
- 2024 Q3: USD 526,171 · 1 holder · USD 4.99
- 2024 Q4: USD 411,236 · 1 holder · USD 3.90
- 2025 Q1: USD 351,132 · 1 holder · USD 3.33
- 2025 Q2: USD 296,300 · 1 holder · USD 2.81
- 2025 Q3: USD 443,923 · 1 holder · USD 4.21
- 2025 Q4: USD 325,825 · 1 holder · USD 3.09
- 2026 Q1: USD 298,409 · 1 holder · USD 2.83
- 2026 Q2: USD 342,000 · 1 holder · USD 3.24