One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$658.48 our estimate vs market $44.74
Wall Street consensus: $51.00 (-92.3% lower than our fair-value estimate)
93% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Central Garden & Pet Company
CENT · NMS · Consumer Defensive · Packaged Foods
Current price
$44.74
52-week range
$28.77 - $46.97
Market cap
$2.80B
Balance sheet
Watch
4.33x Stretched
Net debt $411.88M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Returns 10.0% on equity, ahead of 25% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
- Reward Trades at 16.6x P/E vs peer median 21.1x (21.6% cheaper).
- Risk Stock trades 0.4% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Central Garden & Pet Company
Central Garden & Pet makes and sells a wide range of popular products for pets and yards, from Nylabone dog chews to Pennington grass seed. The company earns its money selling these everyday items that people buy repeatedly through big retailers like Walmart, local garden centers, and online. This matters because this business model can create steady demand, unlike companies that rely on large, one-time sales.
How the company got here
Central Garden & Pet began in 1980 as a small garden supply distributor founded by Bill Brown. Through a series of key purchases, it transformed from a regional distributor into a national manufacturer of its own brands. Major turning points included acquiring Pennington Seed in 1998 and pet supply companies like Four Paws and Nylabone in 1997, establishing its two core business areas. The company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1993, which helped fund its expansion.
What it actually does
Central Garden & Pet makes and sells a wide variety of products for your pets and your yard. Think of them as a company that owns many of the brands you might see at retailers like Home Depot, Walmart, and PetSmart. For your dog, you might buy their Nylabone chew toys or Cadet dog treats. If you have a garden, you might use their Pennington grass seed or Ferry-Morse flower seeds.
Pet
This is the larger of the company's two main business areas, making up a little more than half of its sales. This segment provides supplies for nearly every kind of pet, including dogs, cats, fish, reptiles, and birds. You'll find products like Kaytee bird seed, Aqueon fish tanks, and Nylabone dog chews under this division. They sell everything from pet beds and grooming tools to live fish and small animals.
Garden
This part of the business sells a wide range of products to help people care for their lawns and gardens. It offers items like Pennington grass seed, Amdro insect killers, and Sevin weed control products. This segment also sells wild bird feed, bird houses, fertilizers, and live plants. While slightly smaller than the pet segment, it's a significant part of the company's overall business.
What management is betting on now
The company's current strategy, called "Central to Home," focuses on growing its portfolio of brands and improving its efficiency. They are investing in their most profitable and high-growth areas while also looking for new companies to buy, especially to build scale in their main categories. Management is also focused on improving its supply chain (the system of getting products from the factory to the store shelf) to reduce costs and become more efficient. A key part of their plan is to increase online sales and strengthen relationships with major retailers.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$193.05M
FY2025 Q1
$-74.93M
FY2025 Q2
$-57.52M
FY2025 Q3
$251.66M
FY2025 Q4
$171.89M
FY2026 Q1
$-81.03M
FY2026 Q2
$-60.09M
FY2026 Q3
$314.87M
Revenue
$882.36M
Net income
$89.86M
Diluted EPS
1.45
Operating cash flow
$327.46M
Free cash flow
$314.87M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$906.15M
Net income
$79.42M
Diluted EPS
1.28
Operating cash flow
$-49.64M
Free cash flow
$-60.09M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$617.37M
Net income
$6.84M
Diluted EPS
0.11
Operating cash flow
$-70.22M
Free cash flow
$-81.03M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$678.18M
Net income
$-9.81M
Diluted EPS
-0.16
Operating cash flow
$182.73M
Free cash flow
$171.89M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$960.91M
Net income
$95.01M
Diluted EPS
1.52
Operating cash flow
$265.48M
Free cash flow
$251.66M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$833.54M
Net income
$63.63M
Diluted EPS
0.98
Operating cash flow
$-46.86M
Free cash flow
$-57.52M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$656.44M
Net income
$14.01M
Diluted EPS
0.21
Operating cash flow
$-68.83M
Free cash flow
$-74.93M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$669.49M
Net income
$-34.16M
Diluted EPS
-0.51
Operating cash flow
$203.09M
Free cash flow
$193.05M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $658.48 vs current price $44.74
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $51.00 (-92.3% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $658.48 a share — about 1,371.8% above today's price of $44.74, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $411.9M. Interest coverage 4.3x.
Net debt
$411.88M
Interest coverage
4.33x
Central Garden & Pet Company's profit covers its interest bill about 4.3 times over.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
CENT
BASELINE
Central Garden & Pet Company
Total debt $1.41B Interest coverage 4.33x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.49B Interest coverage 3.28x -24% vs CENT Carries about 1.3x less debt cushion than CENT.
Total debt $493.66M Interest coverage 5.36x +24% vs CENT Carries about 1.2x more debt cushion than CENT.
Total debt $748.20M Interest coverage 4.98x +15% vs CENT Has roughly the same debt cushion as CENT.
Total debt $6.54B Interest coverage 21.22x +390% vs CENT Carries about 4.9x more debt cushion than CENT.
What you should know
The case for and against CENT
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Returns 10.0% on equity, ahead of 25% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
-
Trades at 16.6x P/E vs peer median 21.1x (21.6% cheaper).
Risks
-
Stock trades 0.4% above its 5-year average P/E.
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)
16.57x
Forward P/E
14.39x
P/B
1.60x
P/S
0.91x
EV/EBITDA
9.01x
PEG ratio
2.01x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
32.6%
Operating margin
15.4%
Net margin
5.4%
ROE
10.0%
ROA
4.6%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.81x
Current ratio
3.79x
Quick ratio
2.58x
Total debt
$1.41B
Total cash
$996.71M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$3.08B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-1.3%
EPS TTM
2.70
EPS 5Y CAGR
4.4%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$390.32M
Free CF TTM
$291.09M
FCF margin
9.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
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