CluenexDillard's DDS
Dillard's scores average on business quality (5.1 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Dillard's does
Dillard's operates department stores, selling apparel, cosmetics, and home furnishings to retail shoppers. Revenue comes from traditional mall-based storefronts and its online channel. Top-line revenue sits at $6.6B with a slight contraction, reflecting stagnant physical store traffic.
- What it does best
Dillard's excels at inventory management, converting merchandise into cash efficiently. It posted a 41.2% gross margin, outperforming Macy's 40.7%.
- The main risk
Top-line contraction threatens volume growth as revenue declined 0.4% over the latest period. Stagnant sales reduce operating leverage across its fixed store footprint.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin stands at 10.8% and net margin is 10.3%. Profitability remains stable thanks to disciplined cost control, though scale advantages diminish as revenue trends downward.
Real estate positioning in regional malls locks in traditional shoppers. Its return on equity hits 34.2%, placing it solidly in the sector's top quartile at the 60th percentile.
Revenue is shrinking with a 0.4% decline, lagging the sector at the 18th percentile. This marks a continued cooling from prior years where annual revenue topped $6.9B.
Debt-to-equity is low at 0.3x with $1.1B in cash exceeding total debt by $551M. Free cash flow reached $635M, supporting $486M in dividends paid. The balance sheet is getting stronger.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on DDS
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Dillard's scores average on the Cluenex quality check (5.1 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is fair, moat fair, growth slow and financial health strong.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 9, 2026.
See DDS today
- Today's verdict on DDS, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Dillard's (DDS)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/dds/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.