Central Garden & Pet Company

CENTA Consumer Defensive Packaged Foods

Central Garden & Pet Company’s revenue for fiscal 2025 (year ended September 2025) was $3.1 billion, down 2.23% from fiscal 2024.

Revenue
−8.17%
EPS
−4.58%
Free cash flow
+25.1%
Total debt
+0.15%

Quarter to June 2026, against a year earlier

41.06 0.44 −1.06%
Market cap
$2.7B
P/E
15.2×
Fwd P/E
—
Dividend yield
—
F-score
8/9
Altman Z
2.51
Beneish M
−2.73
Dividend safety
n/a

Insider Decisions last twelve months

Trades a month
Jan 26 Apr 26 Jul 26 Oct 26
Buy — — — — — — — — — — — —
Sell — — — — — — — — — — — —
Insider Ownership 19.32%

Capital & Financial Ratios $m

Size
Market Cap 2,650.00
Revenue ttm 3,084.06
Net income ttm 166.39
Free cash flow ttm 345.63
Net debt Q 180.84
Valuation
P/E 15.21
Forward P/E —
Price / sales 0.82
Forward P/S Powerpack
Price / FCF 7.30
Price / book 1.44
Financial health
Current ratio Q 3.79 (at or above 1.5: strong)
Debt / equity Q 0.68
Interest coverage Q 8.81
Growth
Revenue growth Q −8.17% (below 0%: shrinking)
Operating income growth Q −6.87% (below 0%: shrinking)
EPS, this year +8.94%
EPS, next year A +5.65%
Revenue, next year A —
EPS, past 5 yrs +7.70%
EPS, next 5 yrs A +6.75%

Green and red mark values outside typical ranges; (Q) is the latest quarter, (A) analysts’ estimates. How we judge →

Valuation vs history

P/E against its own 10 years 33.70%
10-year low 10-year high
P/S against its own 10 years 81.63%
10-year low 10-year high
P/B against its own 10 years 33.00%
10-year low 10-year high
EV/Sales against its own 10 years 53.72%
10-year low 10-year high
EV/FCF against its own 10 years 12.40%
10-year low 10-year high

Dividends

Yield
—
Annual rate
—
Payout ratio
—

Assets vs Liabilities $m

2023 2024 2025 Q'26
Cash 503 768 898 1,012
Receivables 333 326 325 460
Inventory 838 758 722 632
Other — — — —
1,707 1,887 1,976 2,135
2023 2024 2025 Q'26
Payables 191 213 235 217
ST’ Debt 0 0 0 0
Other — — — —
458 515 539 564

Compound Annual Growth %

10y 5y 3y
Sales 6.60% 3.03% (2.14%)
Cash Flow 14.29% 4.70% 0.00%
Earnings 17.68% 6.18% 2.29%
Book Value 12.09% 8.02% 5.89%

Earnings Trends EPS, adjusted, against the consensus

EPS $

Dec Mar Jun Sep Year
’26 0.11 1.28 1.45 — —
’25 0.21 0.98 1.52 (0.16) 2.55
’24 0.01 0.93 1.19 (0.51) 1.62
’23 (0.13) 0.72 1.25 0.04 1.88
’22 0.13 1.02 1.11 (0.03) 2.24
’21 0.08 1.06 1.10 (0.05) 2.20
’20 (0.06) 0.62 1.02 0.20 1.76
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Revenue $m

Dec Mar Jun Sep Year
’26 617 906 882 — —
’25 656 834 961 678 3,129
’24 635 900 996 669 3,200
’23 628 909 1,023 750 3,310
’22 661 954 1,015 707 3,339
’21 592 935 1,037 739 3,304
’20 483 703 833 676 2,696
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Operating Cash Flow $m

Dec Mar Jun Sep Year
’26 (70) (50) 327 — —
’25 (69) (47) 265 183 333
’24 (70) (25) 286 203 395
’23 (63) (34) 325 154 382
’22 (92) (180) 190 48 (34)
’21 (36) (84) 299 72 251
’20 (18) (75) 182 175 264
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Free Cash Flow $m

Dec Mar Jun Sep Year
’26 (81) (60) 315 — —
’25 (75) (58) 252 172 291
’24 (80) (34) 272 193 352
’23 (81) (46) 314 141 328
’22 (117) (231) 167 32 (149)
’21 (51) (103) 275 49 171
’20 (28) (84) 174 159 221
Fiscal quarters ending in the months shown.

Target Price Range

Analyst price targets

Recommendation Rating

1.8
1Buy 2 3Hold 4 5Sell

Ten years at a glance Fiscal years to September

Ten-year view Analyst estimates Powerpack
Group Line 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 TTM Jun ’26 Trend 10 yrs 2026e 2027e 2028e Next 3/yr
Income, $m
Income, $m Revenue 1,829 2,054 2,215 2,383 2,696 3,304 3,339 3,310 3,200 3,129 3,084 +6.1% — — — —
Gross margin, % 30.24 30.80 30.49 29.54 29.55 29.39 29.72 28.60 29.49 31.87 32.54 +1.6 pt
EBT 70 126 127 119 154 195 199 162 142 217 219 +13.4%
EBT margin, % 3.81 6.15 5.75 5.00 5.70 5.90 5.96 4.91 4.45 6.93 7.11 +3.1 pt
Net income 46 80 124 93 122 153 153 126 109 164 166 +15.3%
Per share, $
Per share, $ Revenue 29.88 32.72 34.27 33.58 39.93 49.02 50.19 50.54 48.71 49.59 50.19 +5.8%
Earnings 0.73 1.26 1.91 1.30 1.78 2.25 2.29 1.92 1.64 2.58 2.70 +15.1%
Cash flow 2.47 1.82 1.77 2.89 3.91 3.72 (0.51) 5.83 6.01 5.27 6.35 +8.8%
Capex (0.39) (0.58) (0.59) (0.44) (0.64) (1.19) (1.73) (0.82) (0.66) (0.66) (0.73) +6.0%
Free cash flow 2.09 1.25 1.18 2.44 3.28 2.53 (2.24) 5.00 5.35 4.61 5.62 +9.2%
Book value 9.06 10.15 14.74 14.04 15.96 18.16 20.06 22.18 23.70 25.12 28.43 +12.0%
Shares, m 61 63 65 71 68 67 67 65 66 63 62 +0.3%
Valuation, ×
Valuation, × P/E 27.25 24.02 13.65 17.11 16.06 15.36 11.99 16.58 19.17 11.45 15.21 17.3
P/S 0.66 0.92 0.77 0.66 0.72 0.70 0.54 0.63 0.64 0.60 0.82 0.7
P/B 2.19 2.95 1.79 1.58 1.81 1.89 1.36 1.43 1.32 1.18 1.44 1.8
EV/Sales 0.82 1.09 0.86 0.74 0.73 0.93 0.84 0.83 0.78 0.69 0.88 0.8
EV/FCF 11.79 28.56 25.01 10.13 8.95 17.97 (18.85) 8.43 7.06 7.41 7.82 10.6
Cash, $m
Cash, $m Operating cash flow 151 114 114 205 264 251 (34) 382 395 333 390 +9.1%
Capex (24) (36) (38) (32) (43) (80) (115) (54) (43) (41) (45) +6.4%
Free cash flow 128 78 76 173 221 171 (149) 328 352 291 346 +9.6%
Balance, $m
Balance, $m Working capital 481 463 1,004 1,029 1,085 1,021 1,088 1,249 1,371 1,437 1,571 +12.9%
Net debt 291 351 199 182 28 746 994 685 422 293 181 +0.1%
Shareholders’ equity 555 637 953 996 1,078 1,224 1,335 1,453 1,558 1,585 1,747 +12.4%
Returns, %
Returns, % ROA 3.85 6.34 7.69 4.72 5.53 5.56 4.76 3.77 3.12 4.54 4.47 +0.7 pt
ROIC 9.56 9.88 9.08 8.06 11.19 8.08 6.98 6.16 5.85 8.32 8.10 (1.2) pt
ROE 8.39 13.23 15.55 9.52 11.64 13.19 11.89 9.01 7.17 10.36 9.97 +2.0 pt
People
People Employees 3,600 4,100 5,400 5,800 6,300 7,000 7,000 6,700 6,450 6,000 — +5.8%
Revenue/emp, $m 0.51 0.50 0.41 0.41 0.43 0.47 0.48 0.49 0.50 0.52 — +0.3%
Negative figures in brackets.
estimates

All 10 years →

Fiscal years to Sep 2025 · latest quarter Jun 2026

Central Garden & Pet Company vs peers in Packaged Foods (Q) = latest quarter vs a year earlier

Company Market cap P/E Fwd P/E Revenue growth (Q) EPS growth (Q) FCF growth (Q) Gross margin (Q) EBIT margin (Q) Compare
POST Post Holdings, Inc. $3.7B 14.2× 11.8× −1.83% (below 0%: shrinking) −27.69% (below 0%: shrinking) +69.65% (above 0%: growing) 29.07% 9.72% Compare
FRPT Freshpet, Inc. $3.1B 24.3× 34.4× +10.04% (above 0%: growing) −70.50% (below 0%: shrinking) +19.86% (above 0%: growing) 44.46% 11.05% Compare
MZTI The Marzetti Company $3.0B 17.2× 16.5× −2.42% (below 0%: shrinking) −37.06% (below 0%: shrinking) −38.53% (below 0%: shrinking) 23.00% 8.61% Compare
CENTA Central Garden & Pet Company $2.7B 15.2× — −8.17% (below 0%: shrinking) −4.58% (below 0%: shrinking) +25.12% (above 0%: growing) 35.92% 14.26%
CENT Central Garden & Pet Company $2.7B 17.7× 16.3× −8.17% (below 0%: shrinking) −4.58% (below 0%: shrinking) +25.12% (above 0%: growing) 35.92% 14.26% Compare
UTZ Utz Brands, Inc. $2.1B — (loss-making) 21.0× +1.39% (above 0%: growing) n/m +93.40% (above 0%: growing) 25.87% (1.48%) Compare
JJSF J & J Snack Foods Corp. $1.7B 34.7× 25.9× −6.24% (below 0%: shrinking) −16.74% (below 0%: shrinking) +4.83% (above 0%: growing) 35.45% 10.86% Compare
NOMD Nomad Foods Limited $1.7B 11.8× 9.1× −0.76% (below 0%: shrinking) −2.38% (below 0%: shrinking) +24.23% (above 0%: growing) 28.91% 12.24% Compare
HLF Herbalife Ltd $1.6B 8.7× 8.5× +6.01% (above 0%: growing) +29.36% (above 0%: growing) +12.54% (above 0%: growing) 77.33% 10.26% Compare
Median of peers $2.4B 17.2× 16.4× −1.29% −16.74% +22.04% 32.26% 10.56%

All 68 Packaged Foods stocks →

Pay and ownership Proxy statement filed 22 December 2025

Ownership

Directors and executive officers, together 57.10% of the votes
William E. Brown 56.30% of the votes
BlackRock, Inc. 7.90% of the votes
The Vanguard Group 5.80% of the votes
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP 4.10% of the votes
Ownership is the proxy’s own table: the directors and officers as a group, and every holder of 5% or more. Read the proxy statement

Central Garden & Pet Company (CENTA) Latest News

28 Sep

21 Sep

CENTA metrics, ten years each

stockrow.com/CENTA · Data as of Jun 30, 2026 · For information only; not investment advice. · © 2026 stockrow.com