BBW · Consumer discretionary(retail-hobby, toy & game shops) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2026-01-31
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BUILD-A-BEAR Workshop Inc reported revenue of $529.8 million in fiscal 2026. Of the $296.4 million its operations generated over 10 years, 38.3% went back into the business and 37.2% to buybacks. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 4.09 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 2026529.8M
Operating margin12.7%gross margin 55.8%
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay36.6M6.9% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score5/8tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-200M0200M400M600M
2017
2018
2019Revenue 336.6MOperating income -18.5M
2020Revenue 338.5MOperating income 1.6M
2021Revenue 255.3MOperating income -20.2M
2022Revenue 411.5MOperating income 50.7M
2023Revenue 467.9MOperating income 61.9M
2024Revenue 486.1MOperating income 66.3M
2025Revenue 496.4MOperating income 67.1M
2026Revenue 529.8MOperating income 67.2M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+4.2%
+15.7%
—
Operating income
+2.8%
—
—
Net income
+2.8%
—
—
Earnings per share
+8.2%
—
—
Free cash flow per share
+11.0%
+40.1%
—
Dividend per share
+258.4%
—
—
Shares
-5.0%
-2.6%
—
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Return on invested capitalCost of capital today · 10.3%
0%5%10%15%
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
33.7%
Return on assets
15.1%
Asset turnover
1.53×
Overheads (SG&A)
43.3% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-40M-20M020M40M60M
2017
2018
2019Net income -17.9MFree cash flow -1.7MAfter stock-based pay -5.1M
2020Net income 261,000Free cash flow 9.2MAfter stock-based pay 6.3M
2021Net income -23.0MFree cash flow 8.3MAfter stock-based pay 6.8M
2022Net income 47.3MFree cash flow 19.9MAfter stock-based pay 17.3M
2023Net income 48.0MFree cash flow 33.6MAfter stock-based pay 31.1M
2024Net income 52.8MFree cash flow 46.0MAfter stock-based pay 43.9M
2025Net income 51.8MFree cash flow 27.8MAfter stock-based pay 25.6M
2026Net income 52.2MFree cash flow 39.5MAfter stock-based pay 36.6M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2017–2026
296.4M generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 38%113.6M
Acquisitions 0%0
Dividends 22%64.8M
Share buybacks 37%110.3M
Kept, or used to pay down debt 3%7.7M
Over the same years it paid 20.2M in stock. 90.0M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
-$2$0$2$4
2017
2018
2019Earnings per share $-1.23Free cash flow per share $-0.11
2020Earnings per share $0.02Free cash flow per share $0.63
2021Earnings per share $-1.54Free cash flow per share $0.56Dividend per share $0.00
2022Earnings per share $2.93Free cash flow per share $1.24Dividend per share $1.24
2023Earnings per share $3.15Free cash flow per share $2.21Dividend per share $0.02
2024Earnings per share $3.65Free cash flow per share $3.18Dividend per share $1.52
2025Earnings per share $3.80Free cash flow per share $2.04Dividend per share $0.81
2026Earnings per share $3.99Free cash flow per share $3.02Dividend per share $0.88
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
13M14M15M16M17M
2017
2018Diluted shares 15.0M
2019Diluted shares 14.6M
2020Diluted shares 14.8M
2021Diluted shares 14.9M
2022Diluted shares 16.1M
2023Diluted shares 15.2M
2024Diluted shares 14.5M
2025Diluted shares 13.6M
2026Diluted shares 13.1M
2017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Debt and liquidity
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
— operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.55 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
119 days collects in 15d, stock 128d, pays in 24d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 8 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
✓Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforepassed
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
4.09safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.14 × 6.56+0.94
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.30 × 3.26+0.99
Operating income ÷ assets 0.19 × 6.72+1.31
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.81 × 1.05+0.85
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-2.32below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.25+1.15
Gross margin slipping 0.98+0.52
Soft assets 1.09+0.44
Sales growth 1.07+0.95
Slower depreciation 1.14+0.13
Overheads vs sales 1.04-0.18
Profit not in cash -0.04-0.17
Leverage rising 0.96-0.31
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Receivables are growing 33% against revenue growing 7%.
Benign
A shift towards larger customers on longer terms, or sales concentrated at the end of the period.
Worrying
Sales are being made on looser credit, or revenue has been booked that may never be collected.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
Value per share, with these assumptions$69.42discounted at 10.3% a year · 53% of it from after year 10
Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.
What the value implies, in the usual multiples
At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings
17.4×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA
11.1×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue
1.7×
Free cash flow yield
4.0%
From cash flows to a value per share
10 years of cash flow, today428.8M
Everything after, today479.4M
The whole business908.2M
Minus net debt-0
What belongs to shareholders908.2M
Divided among 13.1M shares: <strong>$69.42</strong> each.
The projection next to its history
Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.
ReportedProjected
-50M050M100M
2017
2018
2019Reported -5.1M
2020Reported 6.3M
2021Reported 6.8M
2022Reported 17.3M
2023Reported 31.1M
2024Reported 43.9M
2025Reported 25.6M
2026Reported 36.6M
2027Projected 47.4M
2028Projected 54.0M
2029Projected 60.8M
2030Projected 67.6M
2031Projected 74.2M
2032Projected 80.3M
2033Projected 85.8M
2034Projected 90.5M
2035Projected 94.0M
2036Projected 96.4M
2017201920212023202520272029203120332035
Year by year
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
Revenue
612.0M
698.0M
786.0M
873.8M
958.7M
1.0B
1.1B
1.2B
1.2B
1.2B
Growth
15.5%
14.1%
12.6%
11.2%
9.7%
8.3%
6.8%
5.4%
3.9%
2.5%
Cash margin
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
7.7%
Free cash flow
47.4M
54.0M
60.8M
67.6M
74.2M
80.3M
85.8M
90.5M
94.0M
96.4M
Worth today
43.0M
44.4M
45.4M
45.8M
45.5M
44.7M
43.3M
41.4M
39.0M
36.3M
If the least-known inputs move
Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.
The discount rate and growth forever
discount ↓ · forever →
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
9.3%
72
76
80
86
92
9.8%
67
71
75
79
84
10.3%
63
66
69
73
78
10.8%
59
62
65
68
72
11.3%
56
58
61
64
67
Year-one growth and the final margin
margin ↓ · growth →
11.5%
13.5%
15.5%
17.5%
19.5%
6.2%
50
54
59
63
68
7.0%
55
59
64
69
75
7.7%
59
64
69
75
81
8.5%
64
69
75
81
87
9.3%
68
74
80
87
94
All the inputs moving at once
5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 2.0%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.
10th percentile$48.06
Median$69.44
90th percentile$98.23
$50.00$75.00$100.00$125.00
Half of the simulations land between <b>$57.61</b> and <b>$83.40</b>; one in ten below $48.06, one in ten above $98.23.
Does the long run make sense?
6.6×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 6.6 times that year's EBITDA.
12%To grow 2.5% forever while reinvesting 21% of its after-tax operating profit, the business must earn 12% on the new capital.
53%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
What lenders charge, after the tax saving on interest: 6.76% × (1 − 22.3%) = <strong>5.25%</strong>.
Weighted by how much of each the company uses (book value (no price given)): <strong>10.26%</strong>, the rate every future cash flow is discounted at.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 4 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market$272,9491 sale(s) by 1 insider(s)
Under pre-arranged plans100%of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Companies like this one
Same SEC industry (retail-hobby, toy & game shops) first, then the rest of consumer discretionary.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.