How to buy The Cato Corporation stock | $8.51

The Cato Corporation is an apparel retail business based in the US. The Cato Corporation shares (CATO) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. The Cato Corporation employs 10,060 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$610.6 million.

How to buy shares in The Cato Corporation

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for The Cato Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: CATO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until The Cato Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$8.51, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of The Cato Corporation, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of The Cato Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

The Cato Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of CATO stocks over time.

The Cato Corporation shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-27.

Latest market close	USD$8.51
52-week range	USD$6.08 - USD$17.5442
50-day moving average	USD$8.4552
200-day moving average	USD$7.8959
Wall St. target price	USD$23
PE ratio	7.7945
Dividend yield	USD$1.32 (13.27%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$1.454

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Is it a good time to buy The Cato Corporation stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of The Cato Corporation by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

The Cato Corporation price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $8.51 from 2020-12-18

1 week (2021-01-07)	-15.41%
1 month (2020-12-17)	-3.41%
3 months (2020-10-15)	23.51%
6 months (2020-07-15)	18.85%

1 year (2020-01-15)	-46.24%
2 years (2019-01-15)	-42.46%
3 years (2018-01-13)	N/A
5 years (2016-01-15)	37.25

Is The Cato Corporation under- or over-valued?

Valuing The Cato Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of The Cato Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

The Cato Corporation's P/E ratio

The Cato Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 8x. In other words, The Cato Corporation shares trade at around 8x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

The Cato Corporation's PEG ratio

The Cato Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.54. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into The Cato Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

The Cato Corporation's EBITDA

The Cato Corporation's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$49.4 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a The Cato Corporation's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

The Cato Corporation financials

Revenue TTM	USD$610.6 million
Gross profit TTM	USD$316.4 million
Return on assets TTM	-6.19%
Return on equity TTM	-14.43%
Profit margin	-6.95%
Book value	$11.696
Market capitalisation	USD$188.1 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting The Cato Corporation shares

There are currently 1.0 million The Cato Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as The Cato Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 20.1% down from 1.3 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting The Cato Corporation shares can be evaluated.

The Cato Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

The Cato Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of The Cato Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of The Cato Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 209118.03278689). The Cato Corporation's SIR currently stands at 4.88. In other words for every 100,000 The Cato Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 4880 shares are currently held short.

However The Cato Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of The Cato Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable The Cato Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case The Cato Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.04% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 The Cato Corporation shares in existence, roughly 40 shares are currently held short) or 0.062% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable The Cato Corporation shares, roughly 62 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against The Cato Corporation.

Find out more about how you can short The Cato Corporation stock.

The Cato Corporation share dividends

We're not expecting The Cato Corporation to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.

Have The Cato Corporation's shares ever split?

The Cato Corporation's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 28 June 2005. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your The Cato Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for The Cato Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted The Cato Corporation's share price.

The Cato Corporation share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, The Cato Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $6.08 up to $17.5442. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while The Cato Corporation's is 0.8961. This would suggest that The Cato Corporation's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

The Cato Corporation overview

The Cato Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer of fashion apparel and accessories primarily in the southeastern United States. It operates through two segments, Retail and Credit. The company's stores and e-commerce Websites offer a range of apparel and accessories, including dressy, career, and casual sportswear; and dresses, coats, shoes, lingerie, costume jewelry, and handbags, as well as men's wear, and lines for kids and infants. It operates its stores and e-commerce Websites under the Cato, Cato Fashions, Cato Plus, It's Fashion, It's Fashion Metro, and Versona names. As of February 1, 2020, the company operated 1,281 stores in 31 states. It also provides credit card services to its customers, as well as layaway plans. The company was founded in 1946 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of The Cato Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 6.41% of The Cato Corporation shares are held by insiders and 78.298% by institutions.

• How many people work for The Cato Corporation?

  Latest data suggests 10,060 work at The Cato Corporation.

• When does the fiscal year end for The Cato Corporation?

  The Cato Corporation's fiscal year ends in February.

• Where is The Cato Corporation based?

  The Cato Corporation's address is: 8100 Denmark Road, Charlotte, NC, United States, 28273

• What is The Cato Corporation's ISIN number?

  The Cato Corporation's international securities identification number is: US1492051065

• What is The Cato Corporation's CUSIP number?

  The Cato Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 149205106