At a glance
The Chefs Warehouse Inc is worth $4.67B, about 64 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 9.4% to $4.15B in fiscal 2025, with 1.7% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 30.1% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $32.4M buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +83.2% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +25.8% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 90.2% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 28.6% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 25 months and 21 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Chefs' Warehouse is a food distributor. It sells to chefs at independent and fine-dining restaurants, hotels, country clubs, caterers and bakeries in the United States, the Middle East and Canada. It carries more than 90,000 products from more than 4,000 suppliers. These range from hard-to-find specialty items, such as truffles, caviar and specialty cheeses, to so-called center-of-the-plate proteins. Those are the main item on a dish, such as custom-cut beef and seafood. Its Allen Brothers mail and online business sells some proteins directly to consumers.
It earns a markup on the food it buys and resells. It delivers with its own trucks from 44 distribution centers. Its annual report for the fiscal year ended December 26, 2025, says it served more than 55,000 customer locations in 23 primary markets. Margins are thin. In fiscal 2025 it kept 24.2 cents of each sales dollar after the cost of the food (gross margin) and 1.7 cents after all costs (net margin). Revenue grew from about $1.7 billion in fiscal 2021 to $4.1 billion in fiscal 2025, partly through acquisitions.
Center-of-the-plate proteins were the largest category, at 38.8% of fiscal 2025 revenue. Dry goods came next at 15.8%, then pastry at 13.6% and produce at 12.4%. Dairy and eggs, cheeses and charcuterie, oils and vinegars, and kitchen supplies made up the rest.
Price history
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CHEF +83.2% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Center-of-the-plate | $1.61B | 38.8% |
| Dry goods | $656.8M | 15.8% |
| Pastry | $562.3M | 13.6% |
| Produce | $516.6M | 12.4% |
| Dairy and eggs | $296.8M | 7.2% |
| Cheeses and charcuterie | $292.7M | 7.1% |
| Oils and vinegars | $135.6M | 3.3% |
| Kitchen supplies | $80.0M | 1.9% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 25, 2026), revenue was $1.14B, up 11.2% from a year earlier, and net income was $29.6M (+54.7%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $4.15B (+9.4% year over year; +30.1% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 1.7% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +30.1% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 3.5% weak |
| Free cash flow margin | 2.1% watch |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 12% watch |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 3.6% watch |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-564.1M weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $1.11B | $-82.9M | $35.8M |
| FY2021 | $1.75B | $-4.9M | $-58.7M |
| FY2022 | $2.61B | $27.8M | $-22.7M |
| FY2023 | $3.43B | $34.6M | $4.2M |
| FY2024 | $3.79B | $55.5M | $103.6M |
| FY2025 | $4.15B | $72.4M | $87.8M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $4.67B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 63.9 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
The Chefs Warehouse’s market value went from $414.8M at the end of 2016 to $4.67B on Oct 28, 2026, about 11.3 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 84%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $4.67B | +84.1% |
| 2025 | $2.54B | +30.0% |
| 2024 | $1.95B | +67.1% |
| 2023 | $1.17B | -8.3% |
| 2022 | $1.27B | +1.0% |
| 2021 | $1.26B | +30.0% |
| 2020 | $970.3M | -16.1% |
| 2019 | $1.16B | +20.6% |
| 2018 | $958.4M | +76.0% |
| 2017 | $544.6M | +31.3% |
| 2016 | $414.8M |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHEF price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +72.3% | +83.2% | +81.5% | +25.8% | +25.1% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +72.3% |
| 2025 | +26.4% |
| 2024 | +67.6% |
| 2023 | -11.6% |
| 2022 | -0.1% |
| 2021 | +29.6% |
| 2020 | -32.6% |
| 2019 | +19.2% |
| 2018 | +56.0% |
| 2017 | +29.8% |
| 2016 | -5.3% |
| 2015 | -27.6% |
| 2014 | -21.0% |
| 2013 | +84.4% |
| 2012 | -11.5% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Before this security existed |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 81.7% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 90.2%, back to its old high 25.2 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 12.1% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 28.6%, back to its old high 21.1 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 17 sales ($34.4M), 1 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 2026 | Christopher Pappas President and CEO, Director | sell | $9.8M |
| Mar 3, 2026 | Christopher Pappas President and CEO, Director | sell | $6.0M |
| Aug 14, 2026 | Christopher Pappas President and CEO, Director | sell | $5.5M |
| Aug 14, 2026 | Christopher Pappas President and CEO, Director | sell | $5.5M |
| Feb 27, 2026 | Alexandros Aldous General Counsel | sell | $2.1M |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 13.2% | Dec 31, 2024 |
| Wellington Management Group LLP | 5.9% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Ameriprise Financial, Inc. | 4% | Sep 30, 2025 |
| GREENHOUSE FUNDS LLLP | 3.9% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| AllianceBernstein L.P. | 2.6% | Mar 31, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in CHEF
| PSCC Invesco S&P SmallCap Consumer Staples ETF | 4.59% |
| PBJ Invesco Food & Beverage ETF | 2.28% |
| PSL Invesco Dorsey Wright Consumer Staples Momentum ETF | 2.13% |
| RZG Invesco S&P SmallCap 600® Pure Growth ETF | 1.41% |
| SCDS JPMorgan Fundamental Data Science Small Core ETF | 1% |
| XSMO Invesco S&P SmallCap Momentum ETF | 0.57% |
| MMSC First Trust Multi-Manager Small Cap Opportunities ETF | 0.41% |
| DWAS Invesco Dorsey Wright SmallCap Momentum ETF | 0.4% |
What could go wrong
- Diners cutting back at pricier restaurants. Its customers depend on people dining out, and spending at expensive restaurants can drop sharply in a weak economy. Lower sales would spread the company's fixed costs over less volume.
- Business concentrated in key culinary markets. Its operations are concentrated in certain culinary markets, such as New York and San Francisco. A local slump, severe weather or other events there could hurt results more than at a more spread-out distributor.
- Thin margins exposed to food price swings. It kept 1.7 cents of profit per sales dollar in fiscal 2025. Food inflation it can't pass on, or falling prices, can shrink that. Rising labor and fuel costs add pressure.
- Substantial debt and supplier payment terms. Total debt was about $729 million against $165 million of cash and investments as of September 25, 2026. Debt can limit investment, and suppliers may shorten payment terms if they doubt its ability to pay.
- Growth depends partly on acquisitions. It has grown partly by buying other distributors with cash and borrowed money. Future deals may be harder to finance, and a disappointing purchase could force a write-down of goodwill, the premium paid for it.
- Customers can leave or fail to pay. Customers generally aren't obligated to keep buying, and rival national, regional and local distributors compete hard for them. The company has lost money in the past when customers couldn't pay their bills.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Major agreement signed; Major agreement ended; New debt or financial obligation; Unregistered sale of shares
- Quarterly results released
- Shareholder vote results
- Quarterly results released
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
Chefs' Warehouse paid no dividends from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025. So there is no record of increases and no share of profit or cash flow paid out. An income investor would get no regular cash and would need to sell shares to raise money. The company has bought back stock: about $17.4 million in fiscal 2024 and $15.0 million in fiscal 2025. Even so, shares outstanding rose 14.7% from October 2021 to October 2026, so buybacks have not offset new shares issued.
The shares have fallen hard in downturns. In the 2020 COVID crash, they dropped 90.2% between February 19 and March 18, 2020. They did not regain their peak until April 25, 2022, about 25 months later. In the 2022 stock market slump, they fell 28.6% from June 27 to September 30, 2022, and recovered about 21 months later, by July 3, 2024. A single stock carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Chefs' Warehouse make money?
It buys food from more than 4,000 suppliers and resells it, with delivery, to chefs at independent restaurants, hotels, country clubs, caterers and bakeries in the United States, the Middle East and Canada. Center-of-the-plate proteins, such as custom-cut beef and seafood, were its biggest category. They made up 38.8% of the $4.1 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended December 26, 2025. Dry goods, pastry and produce came next. Margins are slim: net profit was 1.7% of sales that year.
Does Chefs' Warehouse pay a dividend?
No. Chefs' Warehouse paid no dividends from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2025, and it had no dividend yield as of October 28, 2026. It spent about $32.4 million buying back its own shares in fiscal 2024 and 2025. Even so, shares outstanding rose 14.7% between October 2021 and October 2026. Investors who need regular income would not get it from this stock. Any return would come from changes in the share price, and cash would have to come from selling shares.
How has Chefs' Warehouse stock performed?
Very well over the past decade, with deep drops along the way. As of October 28, 2026, the share price was up 83.2% over one year. It had gained about 25.8% a year over five years and 25.1% a year over ten years. But it fell 32.6% in calendar 2020 and 11.6% in 2023, and its worst decline from a peak was 91.3%. Its price-to-earnings ratio, the share price divided by profit per share, was 63.9 based on fiscal 2025 earnings.
How much debt does Chefs' Warehouse have?
About $729 million in total debt as of September 25, 2026. Against that, it held about $165 million in cash and investments, leaving net debt of roughly $564 million. Shareholders' equity, or assets minus liabilities, was about $687 million. The company's annual report warns that this substantial debt could limit investment in the business. It also warns that suppliers might shorten payment terms if they see its borrowing as high. Borrowing has also helped pay for its acquisitions.
Are Chefs' Warehouse insiders selling stock?
Yes. The insider filings reviewed for October 29, 2025, to October 29, 2026, show 17 sales worth about $34.4 million and no purchases. CEO Christopher Pappas made the largest sales. They include about $9.75 million on May 5, 2026, and two sales of about $5.5 million each on August 14, 2026. Only one sale was made under a prearranged trading plan. Insiders sell for many reasons, such as taxes or diversification, so selling alone does not show how they view the business.