Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Sep 25, 2026
Citi Trends Inc (CTRN)
A forensic read on Citi Trends Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
62.9
P / E (ttm)
4.5%
ROE
$422M
Market cap
8.9%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Citi Trends Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
1.2%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 1.2% in the latest fiscal year, against -4.4% in FY2024, having run between -10.8% and 1.2% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($15M) in FY2024 and $3M in FY2026, with operating income at -2.6% of revenue in FY2024, -5.2% in FY2025 and 0.5% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -15% across FY2024–FY2026, from $349M to $298M, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work.
+0.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share count.Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+0.5%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($6M) are about offsetting stock comp ($5M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
1012% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $6M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 1012% of free cash flow, but 30% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $5M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 1876%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$820.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+8.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+4.7%
Net Margin0.6%
Free Cash Flow$624,000.00
Return on Equity4.5%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Citi Trends Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?