Forensic Analysis · Apparel & Specialty Retail · as of Nov 9, 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

2.6

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

4.5%

ROE

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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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 2.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

1.5%

FY2026

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 1.5% in the latest fiscal year, against -5.7% in FY2024, having run between -12.6% and 1.5% 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 $269M to $229M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on.

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

Return on Equity4.5%

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 9, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

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