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US department store chain selling apparel, footwear and home goods, with Sephora shop-in-shops.
US department store chain selling apparel, footwear and home goods, with Sephora shop-in-shops.
Earns the retail margin on apparel and home goods sold in its stores and online, boosted by private-label brands that carry higher margins than outside names. A credit card run by Capital One pays Kohl's a share of card profits. Traffic depends heavily on promotions.
Moat: none (brand, scale). Recognized brand and store base, but faces structural pressure from off-price and online apparel competitors.
Headquarters: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, US · Founded: 1962 · Employees: 84,000
Size Kohl's (KSS) is a United States Consumer Discretionary company (Department Stores) with a market value of $2.61B, the 1627th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $23.04 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 58.9%, against -4.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 2.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +1.0%); the operating margin is 3.9% (peer median 5.5%).
Valuation It trades at 15.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 13.0× (7th most expensive of 17).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 0% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is -1%, so the hurdle is +1 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 2.3 points below its cost of capital (7.2% WACC).
Credit Kohl's has 4 bonds outstanding ($1.21B), rated BB- by the agencies and trading like B+ at a weighted spread of 319 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 28.8% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 24 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $15.4B | $15.5B | $16.2B | $17.5B | $18.1B |
| Revenue growth | — | -4% | -7% | -3% | — |
| Gross profit | $5.66B | $5.60B | $5.82B | $6.23B | $5.83B |
| EBITDA | $1.29B | $1.21B | $1.25B | $1.47B | $1.05B |
| Net income | $270M | $272M | $109M | $317M | -$19.0M |
| Free cash flow | $1.03B | $1.01B | $182M | $591M | -$544M |
| Capital expenditure | $318M | $372M | $466M | $577M | $826M |
| Total debt | $6.42B | $6.63B | $7.16B | $7.38B | $7.57B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kohl's KSS | $2.61B | +59% | -3% | 4% | 15.3× | 0.0% |
| Macy's M | $6.03B | +18% | 0% | 4% | 10.8× | -1.1% |
| TJX Companies TJX | $149B | -11% | +8% | 12% | 25.1× | 3.7% |
| Target TGT | $72.0B | +28% | +2% | 6% | 17.1× | 4.1% |
| Ross Stores ROST | $73.8B | +3% | +14% | 13% | 27.0× | 11.0% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | KSS | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +14.6% | +0.1% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +58.9% | -4.1% | highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -10.0% | -36.6% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -2.9% | +1.0% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 3.9% | 5.5% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 15.3× | 13.0× | 7th most expensive of 17 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 0.0% | 1.3% | 8th least demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | -0.5% | +3.2% | 7th lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +0.6 pp | -4.5 pp | 7th most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -2.3 pp | -1.0 pp | 5th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 6.4× | 8.9× | 2nd cheapest of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.3× | 2.4× | 3rd most indebted of 12 |
| Bond spread | 319 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kohl's KSS | United States | $2.61B | +59% | -3% | 4% | 15.3× | 0.0% | -0.5% |
| Ceconomy CEC.DE | Germany | $2.47B | +9% | +4% | 1% | 7.8× | 2.9% | +2.1% |
| H2O Retailing 8242.T | Japan | $2.10B | +17% | 0% | 5% | 12.3× | -9.7% | -1.6% |
| Beijing United Information Technology 603613.SS | China | $2.05B | -30% | -4% | 5% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Easyhome New Retail 000785.SZ | China | $1.97B | -18% | -23% | 3% | 19.3× | 1.0% | +4.4% |
| CCOOP 000564.SZ | China | $3.55B | -23% | +19% | -46% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Seria 2782.T | Japan | $1.91B | +18% | +13% | 9% | 15.2× | -2.1% | +5.0% |
| Lotte Shopping 023530.KS | South Korea | $1.87B | -33% | +1% | 5% | 7.9× | 5.8% | -3.2% |
| Harvey Norman HVN.AX | Australia | $3.84B | +2% | +5% | 18% | 13.8× | 4.7% | +0.8% |
| Takashimaya 8233.T | Japan | $3.98B | +14% | +2% | 11% | 15.6× | 2.4% | -6.3% |
| Wangfujing 600859.SS | China | $1.65B | -21% | -10% | 5% | 244.5× | -13.6% | -2.4% |
| Shinsegae 004170.KS | South Korea | $1.59B | -38% | +7% | 9% | 5.8× | -2.2% | +7.8% |
| J Front Retailing 3086.T | Japan | $4.46B | +24% | -3% | 11% | 22.1× | 5.9% | +6.9% |
| Anhui Anfu Battery Technology 603031.SS | China | $1.43B | -39% | +4% | 23% | 23.0× | -0.2% | +21.9% |
| Hyundaideptst 069960.KS | South Korea | $1.29B | -23% | -3% | 9% | 7.0× | -17.1% | +13.2% |
| Izumi 8273.T | Japan | $1.28B | -1% | +1% | 5% | 11.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Ollie's Bargain Outlet OLLI | United States | $5.37B | +10% | +14% | 12% | 19.8× | 1.5% | +7.9% |
| Hunan Friendship & Apollo Commercial 002277.SZ | China | $1.23B | -5% | -20% | -60% | n/a | 21.6% | -15.5% |
| Macy's M | United States | $6.03B | +18% | 0% | 4% | 10.8× | -1.1% | +4.6% |
| Maoye Commercial 600828.SS | China | $1.13B | -13% | -22% | -3% | n/a | 12.9% | -8.4% |
| Tokyu 9005.T | Japan | $6.14B | -3% | +5% | 9% | 10.0× | n/a | n/a |
Kohl's has 4 bonds outstanding with $1.21B face value. The agencies rate it BB-; its bonds trade like B+. Weighted yield 7.93%, a spread of 319 bp over government bonds.