Skip to content
NYSE · RETAIL-WOMEN'S CLOTHING STORES · SMALL CAP

Cato Corp. CATO

17 fiscal years on record · USD · FY2025 reported · SEC filings only
$653.8M
▲ 0.6% YoY
$-5.9M
$-5.2M

Slide the table for earlier years · "·" marks a figure not available in our data for that year.

In brief

What this company does

The Company operated 1,069 fashion specialty stores at January 31, 2026, in 31 states, principally in the southeastern United States, under the names Cato, Cato Fashions, Cato Plus, It's Fashion, It's Fashion Metro and Versona. As of January 31, 2026, it employed approximately 6,700 full-time and part-time associates. The Cato concept's stores and e-commerce website feature a broad assortment of apparel and accessories, including dressy, career and casual sportswear, dresses, coats, shoes, lingerie, costume jewelry and handbags. The Versona concept's stores and e-commerce website offer apparel items, jewelry and accessories. The Company has two reportable segments, Retail and Credit. It offers its own credit card, which accounted for 3.3% of retail sales in fiscal 2025. The Company originated as a family-owned business and made its first initial public offering of stock in 1968; in 1980 it went private, and in 1987 it again conducted an initial public offering.

Written from the business description in CATO CORP's annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed 25 March 2026. Every sentence was checked against that document before publication.

Growth

USD 653.8M
Revenue, FY2025 · full 17-year series below
Revenue $B Net income $B
FY2025 · Revenue 0.7 · Net income -0.0
0.5B1.0B
2009201220152018202120242025
Compound annual growth
−4.9%
+2.6%
−4.3%
−2.3%
−67.7%
−48.5%
−30.8%
−19.6%
3 yrs
5 yrs
10 yrs
15 yrs

Revenue compounded at +2.6% a year over the five years to FY2025.

Compound annual rates per period — left blank where that exact year isn't on file, the series crosses a loss, or (per-share rows) a split falls inside the window.

Profitability

−1 cents
lost on every revenue dollar
Operating margin Net margin
FY2025 · Operating -1.9% · Net -0.9%
2%4%6%-5%-10%
200920172025
ROE
FY2025 · ROE -3.7%
5%10%15%-5%-10%-15%
200920172025
Three returns, three denominators.

Each USD of equity lost 4 cents this year.

Cash & shareholders

USD 995,000.00
returned in FY2025 · dividends + net buybacks
Free cash flow $M
FY2025 · FCF -5.2
40M80M-20M-40M
200920172025
Net buybacks $M Dividends $M
FY2025 · Dividends 0.0 · Net buybacks 1.0
40M80MDividendsNet buybacks
200920112013201520172019202120232025

USD 995,000.00 in buybacks went back to shareholders in a year without profit.

Total assetsUSD 421.4M
EquityUSD 157.3M
CashUSD 16.8M
Current ratio1.24×

Equity funds 37% of total assets.

The 17-year record

17 fiscal years
Every figure from documents filed with the SEC · USD
row low → row highnegative—not applicable◌not available in our data
CATO, 17-year financial record
Metric 20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015201420132012201120102009
Revenue $B0.70.60.70.80.80.60.80.80.81.01.01.00.90.90.90.90.9
Operating income $B−0.0−0.0−0.0−0.00.0−0.10.00.00.0◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
EBITDA $B−0.0−0.0−0.00.00.1−0.10.10.00.0◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
Income tax $B−0.00.00.00.00.0−0.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.0
Net income $B−0.0−0.0−0.00.00.0−0.00.00.00.00.00.10.10.10.10.10.10.0
Free cash flow $B−0.0−0.0−0.0−0.00.1−0.00.00.10.00.00.10.10.10.00.00.10.1
EPS, diluted $−0.31−0.97−1.170.001.65−2.011.461.230.341.722.392.151.862.112.212.001.53
Dividend / sh $0.000.510.680.680.45◌◌◌◌◌◌◌0.202.980.880.720.66
Payout %−0−58−584954827−179110739575505611141403643
ROE %−3.7−10.2−11.40.014.7−16.911.39.52.411.916.915.714.817.318.518.615.1

Slide the table for earlier years. "—" not applicable · "◌" not available in our data.

More in this sector

Other companies filing in the same sector

Provenance

Company facts, as filed

How we verify · 0 failures in 64 reconciliationsAUDITED

Reconciled in 17 of the 17 fiscal years we could check. Six checks were skipped: the balance sheet is not tagged before 2010. Three checks were skipped: the share count is not tagged before 2010. Two checks were skipped: revenue is not tagged before 2009.

EPS recomputationBalance-sheet identityGross profitBalance-sheet liquidityCurrency consistency0 failures
ActivityRetail-Women's Clothing Stores
Listed onNYSE
Incorporated inDelaware
Fiscal year endsJanuary 30
SEC categorysmaller reporting company
Data on record since2009

Share this section

Download image