Cava Group
CAVA on NYSE. Cava Group sells bowls, pitas, and dips to restaurant diners and grocery shoppers. Market value $6.3bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to July 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Retail & consumer stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $0.80 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 80.9 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 9 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 61 of 100. Price score: 10 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$52.64 a share, 21% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $43.41 to $98.79.
Pays no dividend
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $49 million in the past 12 months, $26 million in the year to December 2025.
| Revenue | |||
| Revenue | $729m | $964m | $1.2bn |
| Operating margin | |||
| Operating margin | 0.6% | 4.5% | 4.7% |
| Debt to equity | |||
| Debt to equity | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Shares outstanding | |||
| Shares outstanding | 0.11bn | 0.12bn | 0.12bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive2 of 3 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)5 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.00× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsUnknown
- Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat
The quarter to July 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $368 million last quarter, up 31% on a year ago.
- Profit: $23 million, up 25% on a year ago.
- It keeps 5 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, about the same as a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $49 million, up from $47 million.
- About the same number of shares as a year ago.
- It has $323 million more cash than debt, up from $290 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $244m |
| December 2024 | $227m |
| April 2025 | $332m |
| July 2025 | $281m |
| September 2025 | $292m |
| December 2025 | $275m |
| April 2026 | $438m |
| July 2026 | $368m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $18m |
| December 2024 | $79m |
| April 2025 | $26m |
| July 2025 | $18m |
| September 2025 | $15m |
| December 2025 | $5m |
| April 2026 | $24m |
| July 2026 | $23m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 25 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 11 November 2026
Who owns it
2 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 2 last quarter. 539 funds in all.
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $6m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Platinum Investment ManagementPlatinum team | $3m | 0.8% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$757m
- Alliancebernstein L.P.$537mCut
- Artal Group$511mCut
- FMR$434mCut
- Vanguard Capital Management$352m
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$331m
- State Street$243mAdded
- Price T Rowe Associates$238mCut
- 1832 Asset Management L.P.$198mAdded
- Morgan Stanley$167mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
4 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor7.9%+1.5 ptsSince 30 September 2025
- AllianceBernstein L.P.Passive investor5.7%−2.2 ptsSince 30 June 2026
- Artal Participations S.a r.l.Passive investorat least 5.6%−2.7 pts(filed with 6 related holders)Since 30 June 2026
- FMR LLCPassive investorat least 5.1%(filed with 1 related holder)Since 31 March 2026
- Capital Research Global InvestorsPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 June 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
- PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL INCPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 September 2025
- Jennison Associates LLCPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 September 2025
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 7.9%+1.5 pts | 30 September 2025 | |
AllianceBernstein L.P. Passive investor | 5.7%−2.2 pts | 30 June 2026 | |
Artal Participations S.a r.l. Passive investor | at least 5.6%−2.7 pts (filed with 6 related holders) | 30 June 2026 | |
FMR LLC Passive investor | at least 5.1% (filed with 1 related holder) | 31 March 2026 | |
Capital Research Global Investors Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 June 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 | |
PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL INC Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 September 2025 | |
Jennison Associates LLC Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 September 2025 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 3 insiders bought $1m of shares on the open market. 8 sold $286m.
- KADOW JOSEPH JOHNCLO & SecretaryBought
- Date
- 15 September 2026
- Shares
- 1,000
- Price
- $49.96
- Value
- $49,960
- Thompson Douglas W.Chief Operations OfficerBought
- Date
- 31 August 2026
- Shares
- 6,500
- Price
- $66.52
- Value
- $432,380
- KOCHEVAR KARENDirectorSold
- Date
- 18 June 2026
- Shares
- 10,000
- Price
- $90.00
- Value
- $900,000
- Costanza KellyChief People OfficerSold
- Date
- 17 June 2026
- Shares
- 12,490
- Price
- $90.00
- Value
- $1m
- Costanza KellyChief People OfficerSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,870
- Price
- $89.43
- Value
- $256,664
- Schulman BrettCEO and President, DirectorSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 33,174
- Price
- $89.43
- Value
- $3m
- Tolivar Tricia K.Chief Financial OfficerSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 4,969
- Price
- $89.43
- Value
- $444,378
- Phillips Adam DavidChief Accounting OfficerSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 757
- Price
- $89.43
- Value
- $67,699
- Xenohristos TheodorosChief Concept Officer, DirectorSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 3,252
- Price
- $89.43
- Value
- $290,826
- Artal Participations S.a r.l.DirectorSold
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Shares
- 3,000,000
- Price
- $90.30
- Value
- $271m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 September 2026 | KADOW JOSEPH JOHN CLO & Secretary | Bought | 1,000 | $49.96 | $49,960 |
| 31 August 2026 | Thompson Douglas W. Chief Operations Officer | Bought | 6,500 | $66.52 | $432,380 |
| 18 June 2026 | KOCHEVAR KAREN Director | Sold | 10,000 | $90.00 | $900,000 |
| 17 June 2026 | Costanza Kelly Chief People Officer | Sold | 12,490 | $90.00 | $1m |
| 15 June 2026 | Costanza Kelly Chief People Officer | Sold | 2,870 | $89.43 | $256,664 |
| 15 June 2026 | Schulman Brett CEO and President, Director | Sold | 33,174 | $89.43 | $3m |
| 15 June 2026 | Tolivar Tricia K. Chief Financial Officer | Sold | 4,969 | $89.43 | $444,378 |
| 15 June 2026 | Phillips Adam David Chief Accounting Officer | Sold | 757 | $89.43 | $67,699 |
| 15 June 2026 | Xenohristos Theodoros Chief Concept Officer, Director | Sold | 3,252 | $89.43 | $290,826 |
| 15 June 2026 | Artal Participations S.a r.l. Director | Sold | 3,000,000 | $90.30 | $271m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 25 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 12 Aug 2026 and 7 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- It isn't cheap on profits: 80.9× operating profit.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.