Footwear company Caleres (NYSE:CAL) fell short of the market's revenue expectations in Q2 CY2026, but sales rose 5.6% year on year to $695.5 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.47 per share was 27% above analysts' consensus estimates.
Is now the time to buy Caleres? Find out in our full research report .
Caleres (CAL) Q2 CY2026 Highlights:
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Revenue:$695.5 million vs analyst estimates of $702.5 million (5.6% year-on-year growth, 1% miss)
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Adjusted EPS:$0.47 vs analyst estimates of $0.37 (27% beat)
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Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidanceto $1.58 at the midpoint, a 3.3% increase
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Operating Margin:11.2%, up from 2.5% in the same quarter last year
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Free Cash Flow Margin:10.7%, up from 5.3% in the same quarter last year
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Market Capitalization:$404.1 million
Company Overview
The owner of Dr. Scholl's, Caleres (NYSE:CAL) is a footwear company offering a range of styles.
Revenue Growth
A company's long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years. Unfortunately, Caleres's 2.4% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was weak. This was below our standards and is a rough starting point for our analysis.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. Caleres's recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years.
This quarter, Caleres's revenue grew by 5.6% year on year to $695.5 million, missing Wall Street's estimates.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 2.2% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. While this projection implies its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.
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Operating Margin
Caleres's operating margin has generally stayed the same over the last 12 months, and we generally like to see margin increases due to economies of scale and cost efficiency over time.
In Q2, Caleres generated an operating margin profit margin of 11.2%, up 8.6 percentage points year on year. This increase was a welcome development and shows it was more efficient.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company's historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth — for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
Sadly for Caleres, its EPS declined by 12.6% annually over the last five years while its revenue grew by 2.4%. We can see the difference stemmed from higher interest expenses or taxes as the company actually improved its operating margin and repurchased its shares during this time.
In Q2, Caleres reported adjusted EPS of $0.47, up from $0.35 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts' estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Caleres's full-year EPS to grow 62.1% from $1.17 to $1.90.
Key Takeaways from Caleres's Q2 Results
It was good to see Caleres beat analysts' EPS expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its EPS guidance for next quarter missed and its full-year EPS guidance fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded up 5.2% to $12.66 immediately following the results.
Is Caleres an attractive investment opportunity right now? We think that the latest quarter is just one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it's free .
