Petco Health and Wellness Company

WOOF

Specialty Retail · Consumer Cyclical

Exchange

NASDAQ

Winston Score

Winston is serious

Mixed quality — meaningful strengths and weaknesses.

Data as of Aug 23, 2026 · filings through May 2, 2026

How the score breaks down

Quality

Weak

Growth

Mixed

Cash Flow

Strong

Stability

Weak

Valuation

Good

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Winston Score History

The full picture

Petco is a pet store chain that sells food, toys, medicine, and supplies for dogs, cats, birds, fish, and other pets. It also offers services like grooming, training, and veterinary care inside many of its stores. Petco operates hundreds of locations across the United States, making it one of the largest specialty pet retailers in the country.

Petco makes money through in-store and online product sales, plus fees from its grooming and vet clinic services. It competes mainly against Chewy and PetSmart, and faces growing pressure from Amazon and big-box stores like Walmart and Target. With a very thin operating margin of around 2% and a low return on invested capital, Petco's biggest challenge is managing its heavy debt load while trying to grow its higher-margin services business — including its network of in-store veterinary clinics — to differentiate itself from cheaper online competitors.

Growth Profile

For growth stock investors

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

-2.4% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Revenue declining

EPS Growth

+81.6% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

EPS growth accelerating

Insider Activity

47.7%ownership

→ Flat

Insider ownership roughly steady over the past year

Cash Position

Cash flow positive

$257M cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↑ Burn rate improving

Company generates more cash than it spends — no dilution risk from fundraising

Revenue declining

Petco Health and Wellness Company's revenue is actually shrinking. In a growth stock, that removes the core investment thesis. The low Winston Score here may be warranted — unless there's a turnaround story.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

Every number that matters to educated investors.

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Quality

Profit per sale

Gross Margin

38.4%

Modest — 38.4% gross margin

Profit after running costs

Operating Margin

1.6%

Thin — 1.6% operating margin

Return on the money invested

ROCE

4.4%

Weak — 4.4% return on capital

ROIC between 0% and 5%. They earn a few cents back per dollar invested in the business.

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Growth

Sales growth

Sales YoY

-1.9%

Shrinking sales (-1.9% YoY)

Profit growth

EPS YoY

N/A

—

Data not available

How steady the profit is

EPS Consistency

6/8 quarters

Earnings grew in most of the last 8 quarters

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Cash Flow

Profit that turns into cash

Cash Conversion

6454%

Turns 6454% of profit into real cash

Spare cash per sale

FCF Margin

3.9%

Thin free cash flow (3.9%)

FCF margin between 0% and 10%. Some cash from sales, but not a lot.

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Stability

What it owes vs what it owns

Debt / Equity

1.55

Elevated debt (1.55)

Covers its interest

Interest Cover

0.99x

Dangerous — barely covers interest (1.0x)

Interest coverage below 1. Their profits don't cover the interest bill.

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Valuation

Price vs profit

P/E Ratio (TTM)

137.2x

no trend

Expensive — P/E 137.2

P/E over 35. The market is pricing in heavy, sustained growth.

Cheaper or dearer next year

P/E vs Forward

+126.4

GROWING

Earnings expected to grow meaningfully — cheaper on forward P/E (137.2 → 10.8)

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Dividends

Not applicable for this business.

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