Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc. key statistics and ratios

In fiscal 2025, Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc. had return on equity of 24.0%, an operating margin of 4.7%, debt equal to 0.0% of equity and a current ratio of 1.06. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.

Financial ratios

US$ thousands unless shown otherwise. Fiscal years, plus the last twelve months (LTM) when newer.

Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc.: financial ratios, annual
Fiscal year	2011Sept 2011	2012Sept 2012	2013Sept 2013	2014Sept 2014	2015Sept 2015	2016Sept 2016	2017Sept 2017	2018Sept 2018	2019Sept 2019	2020Sept 2020	2021Sept 2021	2022Sept 2022	2023Sept 2023	2024Sept 2024	2025Sept 2025	LTMJun 2026
Gross margin	29.3%	29.4%	29.2%	29.1%	29.2%	28.6%	27.6%	26.6%	26.4%	27.3%	27.7%	28.0%	28.7%	29.4%	29.9%	29.6%
Operating margin	2.8%	3.6%	4.4%	4.7%	4.6%	2.9%	1.8%	1.8%	1.9%	2.7%	2.7%	2.8%	2.8%	3.8%	4.7%	4.7%
Net margin	1.3%	2.0%	2.5%	2.6%	2.6%	1.6%	0.9%	1.5%	1.0%	1.9%	1.9%	2.0%	2.0%	2.7%	3.5%	3.5%
Free-cash-flow margin	−1.4%	−0.0%	−3.2%	−0.9%	0.7%	−3.5%	−0.0%	2.3%	0.8%	3.8%	2.6%	1.1%	2.5%	2.9%	1.8%	1.7%
Return on equity	22.0%	15.0%	13.4%	14.7%	15.1%	9.5%	5.3%	9.0%	6.2%	12.1%	13.0%	14.3%	14.2%	19.7%	24.0%	21.1%
Return on assets	—	5.3%	7.4%	7.7%	7.7%	4.4%	2.4%	4.2%	3.0%	4.0%	3.1%	3.2%	3.5%	5.1%	7.0%	7.0%
Asset turnover	—	2.68	3.02	2.98	2.95	2.73	2.64	2.80	2.85	2.06	1.58	1.65	1.71	1.87	2.01	1.98
Current ratio	—	1.73	1.56	1.35	1.18	1.46	1.51	1.39	1.38	1.11	1.01	1.02	0.99	0.90	1.06	1.10
Debt to equity	0.0%	5.7%	—	0.0%	0.0%	21.6%	21.2%	9.0%	3.6%	0.0%	16.6%	10.1%	4.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
Interest cover (operating income ÷ interest)	11.1x	21.1x	8.8x	9.7x	9.6x	6.7x	3.7x	3.3x	3.4x	13.5x	12.5x	12.7x	9.6x	11.2x	20.2x	23.4x
Effective tax rate	32.0%	34.6%	37.7%	38.1%	36.8%	33.8%	33.1%	−20.7%	20.3%	22.1%	21.0%	23.1%	18.1%	20.7%	21.2%	21.3%
Capital spending as % of revenue	7.7%	7.5%	9.2%	7.0%	5.9%	7.6%	5.3%	2.8%	3.3%	2.6%	2.5%	2.6%	3.2%	3.0%	2.3%	3.6%
Free cash flow ÷ net income	−105.7%	−0.9%	−132.6%	−35.4%	26.2%	−217.3%	−4.2%	151.5%	78.1%	198.7%	133.8%	54.6%	120.6%	106.7%	51.9%	47.7%
Dividends ÷ net income	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.0%	0.0%	31.5%	250.0%	42.4%	39.1%	93.9%	23.7%	27.5%
Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3.0%	0.0%	15.9%	186.9%	77.8%	33.1%	88.0%	45.7%	57.8%

US$ thousands unless shown otherwise. Fiscal quarters.

Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc.: financial ratios, quarterly
Quarter	2024 Q4Sept 2024	2025 Q1Dec 2024	2025 Q2Mar 2025	2025 Q3Jun 2025	2025 Q4Sept 2025	2026 Q1Dec 2025	2026 Q2Mar 2026	2026 Q3Jun 2026
Gross margin	29.6%	29.9%	30.3%	29.9%	29.5%	29.5%	30.4%	29.3%
Operating margin	3.7%	4.0%	5.2%	4.7%	4.6%	4.4%	5.4%	4.5%
Net margin	2.8%	3.0%	3.9%	3.5%	3.5%	3.4%	4.0%	3.3%
Free-cash-flow margin	5.6%	−2.1%	8.2%	−1.3%	2.2%	3.4%	0.7%	0.4%
Current ratio	0.90	0.96	0.97	1.02	1.06	1.07	1.05	1.10
Debt to equity	0.0%	4.9%	—	—	0.0%	—	0.6%	0.6%

Returns use average equity or assets over the year. Return on equity is left blank when equity is negative or so small that the ratio says nothing (above ±200%); interest cover is left blank above 200 times. Price-based ratios such as P/E are on the valuation page.

Financial health

6 of 7 checks passed · June 30, 2026

What it owns · $688m

Short-term assets $174mLonger-term assets $514m

What it owes, and who funded it · $688m

Short-term liabilities $158mLonger-term liabilities $290mShareholders' equity $239m

Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $174m of assets due within a year against $158m of liabilities due within a year.
Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities $174m short-term assets against $290m of longer-dated liabilities.
More cash than debt $17m of cash against $1m of debt.
Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 1% of equity.
Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 13% to 1% over five years.
A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $71m of operating cash flow against $1m of debt.
Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Operating income of $63m against $3m of interest.

From Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc.'s latest balance sheet as filed. Checks are fixed, documented rules (methodology), counted only where the company reports the figures — a dot means the filing doesn't break the item out. Descriptions of reported data, not advice.

Moat

49 /100

Moderate moat

How hard Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.

Returns on capital 3 / 20

Net income has been a median 3.5% of total assets over 10 years.
Pricing power 10 / 20

Gross margin has been a median 28.0%, moving by 1.1 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
Durability 10 / 20

Operating margin has been a median 2.4%; its worst year was 1.7%.
Cash conversion 10 / 20

Free cash flow was positive in 9 of 10 years, at a median 1.7% of revenue.
Discipline 16 / 20

The diluted share count rose 2.5% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.1% of revenue.

AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.

A rules-based reading of reported figures, not a forecast and not investment advice. How the score is built: methodology.

Compare with peers

Head to head: NGVC vs VLGEA GO vs NGVC NGVC vs WMK

More: Food Retail stocks compared, Consumer Staples sector, rankings of US companies

Figures from Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc.'s SEC filings (10-K and 10-Q), retrieved October 26, 2026. How we read and check them: methodology and data sources. Not investment advice. Back to Natural Grocers By Vitamin Cottage, Inc.