One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$25.27 our estimate vs market $11.85
Wall Street consensus: $17.00 (-32.7% lower than our fair-value estimate)
53% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Caleres, Inc.
CAL · NYQ · Consumer Cyclical · Apparel Retail
Current price
$11.85
52-week range
$8.80 - $16.14
Market cap
$397.87M
Balance sheet
Stretched
1.48x Concerning
Net debt $826.39M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1586.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 7.7% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 4.5% (peer median: 13.7%).
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 7.3% to 3.2% over 3 years.
What this company does
Caleres, Inc.
Caleres is a footwear company that operates the Famous Footwear retail stores, which sell popular brands like Nike and Crocs, and also owns its own shoe brands such as Sam Edelman and Vionic. The company makes money from both selling shoes directly to customers in its stores and through wholesale (selling its own brands in bulk to other retailers like department stores). This dual approach means its success depends on both the retail sales at its Famous Footwear locations and the demand for its own family of brands.
How the company got here
Founded in St. Louis in 1878 as a shoe manufacturer called Bryan, Brown & Company, the business grew to become a major player in the U.S. footwear industry. A key turning point was the 1980 acquisition of Famous Footwear, which added a large retail operation to its manufacturing roots. Over the following decades, the company, then known as Brown Shoe Company, shifted its focus from just making shoes to owning a mix of brands and retail stores. In 2015, it changed its name to Caleres to reflect this broader identity as a diverse portfolio of global footwear brands.
What it actually does
Caleres is a global footwear company that designs, makes, and sells shoes for women, men, and children. You might know them through their retail stores, especially Famous Footwear, which sells many different shoe brands. They also own a collection of their own shoe brands that they sell in their own stores, on their websites, and through other retailers like department stores. This means they are both a retailer (a company that sells goods directly to customers) and a brand owner.
Famous Footwear
This is the company's large chain of retail stores, which you can find in shopping centers across the country. Famous Footwear sells a wide variety of brand-name shoes for the whole family, including athletic and casual styles from brands like Nike, Skechers, and Vans, as well as Caleres's own brands. This segment makes money by selling shoes directly to shoppers at a markup (selling for more than they paid) and represents about half of the company's total sales.
Brand Portfolio
This part of the business is a collection of shoe brands that Caleres owns or licenses (has the right to use the brand name). It includes well-known names like Sam Edelman, Allen Edmonds, Naturalizer, and Vionic, which offer everything from fashion and comfort-focused shoes to premium men's dress shoes. This segment generates revenue primarily by selling these branded shoes wholesale (in large quantities to other retailers like department stores) and directly to consumers through the brands' own websites and stores. This segment accounts for a little less than half of the company's revenue.
What management is betting on now
The company is focused on growing its own collection of brands, like Sam Edelman and Allen Edmonds, because owning the brands gives them more control over product and pricing. They are also working to keep Famous Footwear relevant by carefully selecting the shoes they sell and improving the shopping experience both in-store and online. A key priority is expanding their direct-to-consumer business (selling directly to customers online and in their own stores), which helps them gather customer data and avoid markdowns from third-party retailers. Management is also focused on disciplined inventory management to avoid having to sell shoes at a deep discount.
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2025 Q4
$-57.37M
FY2026 Q1
$17.97M
FY2026 Q2
$-26.20M
FY2026 Q3
$34.97M
FY2026 Q4
$-12.39M
FY2027 Q2
$-38.97M
FY2027 Q3
$75.64M
Revenue
—
Net income
$58.64M
Diluted EPS
1.71
Operating cash flow
$83.56M
Free cash flow
$75.64M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$14.28M
Diluted EPS
0.42
Operating cash flow
$-27.78M
Free cash flow
$-38.97M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$2.39M
Diluted EPS
0.07
Operating cash flow
$-1.19M
Free cash flow
$-12.39M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$6.71M
Diluted EPS
0.20
Operating cash flow
$47.30M
Free cash flow
$34.97M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$6.94M
Diluted EPS
0.21
Operating cash flow
$-5.66M
Free cash flow
$-26.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$4.93M
Diluted EPS
0.17
Operating cash flow
$28.71M
Free cash flow
$17.97M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$41.43M
Diluted EPS
1.19
Operating cash flow
$-39.84M
Free cash flow
$-57.37M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $25.27 vs current price $11.85
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $17.00 (-32.7% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $25.27 a share — about 113.4% above today's price of $11.85, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $826.4M. Interest coverage 1.5x.
Net debt
$826.39M
Interest coverage
1.48x
Caleres, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 1.5 times over. and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
CAL
BASELINE
Caleres, Inc.
Total debt $877.31M Interest coverage 1.48x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $583.91M Interest coverage 5.29x +258% vs CAL Carries about 3.6x more debt cushion than CAL.
Total debt $1.23B Interest coverage 0.91x -39% vs CAL Carries about 1.6x less debt cushion than CAL.
Total debt $377.14M Interest coverage 6.60x +347% vs CAL Carries about 4.5x more debt cushion than CAL.
Total debt $130.01M Interest coverage 3.72x +152% vs CAL Carries about 2.5x more debt cushion than CAL.
Total debt $9.11M Interest coverage 14,586.00x +987,744% vs CAL Carries about 9878.4x more debt cushion than CAL.
What you should know
The case for and against CAL
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1586.1% last year.
-
Returns 7.7% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Insider ownership is only 4.5% (peer median: 13.7%).
-
Operating margin compressed from 7.3% to 3.2% over 3 years.
-
Net debt grew 0.9% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
—
Forward P/E
5.40x
P/B
0.57x
P/S
0.14x
EV/EBITDA
10.02x
PEG ratio
0.82x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
44.8%
Operating margin
3.2%
Net margin
1.8%
ROE
7.7%
ROA
1.8%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.29x
Current ratio
1.11x
Quick ratio
0.22x
Total debt
$877.31M
Total cash
$50.92M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.44B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-57.3%
EPS TTM
0.00
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$117.31M
Free CF TTM
$39.43M
FCF margin
2.7%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.3%
Payout ratio
43.8%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-11