Stocks · Consumer Defensive · Food Distribution
The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. CHEF
$116.42 +3.43% Close, Oct 2, 2026 · NASDAQ · Market cap $4.75B
Strong growthStrong trend
Next earnings report: Nov 4, 2026
Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move. Daily prices adjusted for splits. Markers: E = earnings (green beat, red miss), S = split, D = dividend.
Three things to know
- Over the past year the stock returned +113.2%, ahead of the S&P 500 by 98.2 percentage points.
- Earnings beat analyst estimates in each of the last 11 quarters (average surprise over the last four: +33.0%).
- The stock is in an uptrend: above its 200-day average for 124 trading days, with the 50-day average above the 200-day.
PromtFinance scores
Each score is a percentile within the Consumer Defensive sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 5, 2026.
How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.
- Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Top 20%
- EPS growth (TTM, YoY)Top 25%
- FCF growth (TTM, YoY)Bottom 48%
- Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRTop 10%
- Revenue growth accelerationTop 35%
Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.
- Return on invested capitalTop 42%
- Gross marginBottom 30%
- Operating marginBottom 37%
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Top 50%
- Accruals (lower is better)Bottom 26%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Top 50%
- Interest coverBottom 47%
How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.
- Earnings yieldBottom 35%
- Free-cash-flow yieldBottom 23%
- EBITDA / enterprise valueBottom 44%
- Sales / enterprise valueBottom 50%
- P/E vs own 5-year history (lower is better)Bottom 15%
Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.
- 12-month return excluding last monthTop 1%
- 6-month returnTop 1%
- 1-year return vs S&P 500Top 1%
- Distance from 52-week highTop 1%
- Trend checklist (0–4)Top 5%
Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).
- Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersTop 19%
- Consecutive EPS beatsTop 8%
- Share of analysts rating BuyTop 24%
- Upside to consensus price targetBottom 6%
Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.
- Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Bottom 47%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 13%
- Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Bottom 23%
- Net debt / EBITDA (lower is better)Top 50%
What changed
Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).
| Measure | Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 10.0% | 11.2% | ↑ |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 21.2% | 28.8% | ↑ |
| Gross margin | 24.2% | 24.5% | ↑ |
| Operating margin | 3.6% | 4.1% | ↑ |
| FCF margin | 3.0% | 2.9% | ↓ |
Fundamental momentum
| Measure | Now (TTM) | Year / quarter before | Sector rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (TTM, YoY) | 11.2% | 10.0% | ↑ | Top 20% |
| EPS growth (TTM, YoY) | 28.8% | 21.2% | ↑ | Top 25% |
| Gross margin | 24.5% | 24.2% | ↑ | Bottom 30% |
| Operating margin | 4.1% | 3.6% | ↑ | Bottom 37% |
| Net margin | 2.1% | 1.8% | ↑ | — |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 2.9% | 3.0% | ↓ | — |
| Return on invested capital | 7.7% | — | Top 42% | |
| Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR | 16.7% | — | Top 10% |
Quality of earnings and balance sheet
- Cash conversion (OCF / net income)Above 1× means profits are backed by cash.
- 1.76×
- Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
- -3.4%
- Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
- 0.6%
- Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
- +1.1 pp
- Net debt / EBITDABelow 1× is conservative; above 3× is high leverage.
- 1.98×
- Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
- 4.5×
Shareholder returns
- Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
- 0.00%
- Net buyback yield (TTM)
- 0.27%
- Shareholder yield
- 0.27%
- Share count change, 1 year
- +0.0%
- Share count change, 3-year CAGR
- +0.3%
Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.
Based on the four quarters through Jun 26, 2026 (filed Jul 29, 2026).
Earnings and expectations
Earnings momentum
- Consecutive EPS beats
- 11
- Beats in the last 8 reports
- 8 of 8
- Average EPS surprise, last 4
- +33.0%
- Average 2-day reaction, last 8
- +6.0%
- Positive 20 days after report
- 6 of 8
Analysts
- Consensus price target
- $111.00
- Target vs current price
- -4.7%
- Analysts with a rating
- 17
- Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
- 71%
- Consensus rating
- Buy
How the stock reacted to recent reports
| Report date | EPS surprise | 2 days | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | +32.2% | +5.4% | +9.8% | +11.6% | — |
| Apr 29, 2026 | +73.9% | +17.8% | +23.0% | +19.6% | +47.7% |
| Feb 11, 2026 | +9.7% | -1.9% | +6.0% | -1.2% | +22.9% |
| Oct 29, 2025 | +16.3% | +6.4% | +6.0% | +6.0% | +8.7% |
| Jul 30, 2025 | +15.6% | +8.7% | +6.4% | +2.5% | -2.8% |
| Apr 30, 2025 | +19.0% | +6.9% | +14.7% | +20.3% | +16.8% |
| Feb 12, 2025 | +7.8% | +9.4% | +20.4% | -2.2% | +14.6% |
| Oct 30, 2024 | +5.9% | -4.8% | -0.6% | +9.2% | +32.8% |
Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.
Earnings history
| Report date | EPS | Estimate | Surprise | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | $0.78 | $0.59 | +32.2% | $1.17B |
| Apr 29, 2026 | $0.40 | $0.23 | +73.9% | $1.06B |
| Feb 11, 2026 | $0.68 | $0.62 | +9.7% | $1.14B |
| Oct 29, 2025 | $0.50 | $0.43 | +16.3% | $1.02B |
| Jul 30, 2025 | $0.52 | $0.45 | +15.6% | $1.03B |
| Apr 30, 2025 | $0.25 | $0.21 | +19.0% | $950.7M |
| Feb 12, 2025 | $0.55 | $0.51 | +7.8% | $1.03B |
| Oct 30, 2024 | $0.36 | $0.34 | +5.9% | $931.5M |
Valuation in context
| Multiple | Now | 5-year median | 5-year percentile | Sector rank (cheapness) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (trailing) | 55.4× | 45.4× | 83th | Bottom 35% |
| P/E (forward) | 45.9× | — | — | — |
| EV / EBITDA | 13.6× | — | — | Bottom 44% |
| EV / Sales | 1.27× | — | — | Bottom 50% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | 2.65% | — | — | Bottom 23% |
| Earnings yield | 1.80% | — | — | Bottom 35% |
P/E over the past five years
Range 34.4× – 98.5× since Mar 25, 2022. Each point: price on the filing date divided by trailing-twelve-month EPS known then.
What moved the stock over the past year
- Price return, 1 year
- +113.2%
- Earnings per share growth (TTM)
- +28.8%
- Change in P/E multiple
- +22.5%
Most of the move came from earnings growth.
Technical state
Trend checklist
- ✓ Price above 20-day average
- ✓ Price above 50-day average
- ✓ Price above 200-day average
- ✓ 50-day average above 200-day
- ✓ MACD histogram positive
Trend quality
- Days above the 50-day average
- 117
- Days above the 200-day average
- 124
- 50-day average slope (20 days)
- +5.5%
- 200-day average slope (20 days)
- +6.6%
- Distance from 50-day average
- +5.8%
- Distance from 200-day average
- +41.5%
- RSI (14)
- 63.8
- Relative volume
- 1.00×
Risk and drawdowns
- Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
- 37.0%
- Volatility vs own 5-year history
- 49th percentile · Normal for this stock
- Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
- 0.84
- Correlation with S&P 500
- 0.31
- Current drawdown from 1-year high
- +0.0%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 years
- -26.0%
Largest declines in the past six years
| From peak | To low | Decline | Length | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 27, 2022 | Oct 12, 2023 | -56.1% | 326 days | 181 days (Jul 3, 2024) |
| Nov 5, 2021 | Mar 8, 2022 | -26.2% | 83 days | 33 days (Apr 25, 2022) |
| Feb 18, 2025 | Apr 8, 2025 | -26.0% | 35 days | 60 days (Jul 7, 2025) |
| Apr 27, 2021 | Jul 23, 2021 | -25.1% | 61 days | 70 days (Nov 1, 2021) |
| Oct 23, 2020 | Oct 28, 2020 | -23.1% | 3 days | 8 days (Nov 9, 2020) |
Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.
Financial statements
- Market cap
- $4.75B
- P/E (TTM)
- 55.4
- EPS, diluted (TTM)
- $2.10
- Revenue (TTM)
- $4.39B
- 52-week range
- $53.20 – $118.51
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.75B | $2.61B | $3.43B | $3.79B | $4.15B |
| Gross profit | $390.5M | $618.6M | $814.5M | $914.1M | $1.00B |
| Operating income | $10.8M | $85.7M | $100.9M | $128.2M | $153.1M |
| Net income | -$4.9M | $27.8M | $34.6M | $55.5M | $72.4M |
| EPS (diluted) | -$0.13 | $0.73 | $0.88 | $1.32 | $1.68 |
| Q3 2024 | Q4 2024 | Q1 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $931.5M | $1.03B | $950.7M | $1.03B | $1.02B | $1.14B | $1.06B | $1.17B |
| Net income | $14.1M | $23.9M | $10.3M | $21.2M | $19.1M | $21.7M | $17.4M | $33.8M |
| EPS (diluted) | $0.34 | $0.55 | $0.25 | $0.49 | $0.44 | $0.50 | $0.40 | $0.76 |
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | -$19.9M | $23.1M | $61.6M | $153.1M | $129.2M |
| Capital expenditure | -$38.8M | -$45.8M | -$57.4M | -$49.5M | -$41.4M |
| Free cash flow | -$58.7M | -$22.7M | $4.2M | $103.6M | $87.8M |
| Dividends paid | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Net share buybacks | -$1.8M | -$2.7M | -$2.1M | -$24.8M | -$15.0M |
Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.
- Cash and short-term investments
- $135.5M
- Total assets
- $2.03B
- Total liabilities
- $1.38B
- Total debt
- $946.6M
- Net debt
- $811.1M
- Shareholders’ equity
- $648.2M
As of Jun 26, 2026 (filed Jul 29, 2026).
Short interest
- Shares sold short
- 4,655,894
- Days to cover
- 6.41
- Change vs previous report
- -7.6%
FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.