Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. key statistics and ratios

In fiscal 2026, Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. had return on equity of -41.1%, an operating margin of 4.1%, debt equal to 1668.9% of equity and a current ratio of 0.29. 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.

Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc.: financial ratios, annual
Fiscal year	2013Feb 2013	2014Feb 2014	2015Feb 2015	2016Jan 2016	2017Jan 2017	2018Feb 2018	2019Feb 2019	2020Feb 2020	2021Jan 2021	2022Jan 2022	2023Jan 2023	2024Feb 2024	2025Feb 2025	2026Feb 2026	LTMAug 2026
Gross margin	80.4%	80.3%	80.4%	81.2%	82.1%	82.7%	82.6%	82.8%	82.8%	84.3%	83.5%	84.0%	85.3%	85.7%	85.4%
Operating margin	7.2%	8.0%	9.9%	12.7%	15.0%	14.5%	12.7%	10.9%	−57.9%	14.4%	13.4%	13.9%	10.3%	4.1%	1.7%
Net margin	1.4%	0.3%	1.0%	6.9%	9.0%	10.6%	9.3%	7.4%	−47.4%	8.3%	7.0%	5.8%	2.7%	−2.3%	−4.3%
Free-cash-flow margin	0.7%	0.6%	−5.8%	2.8%	5.0%	3.9%	9.6%	4.5%	−30.3%	14.6%	10.7%	1.5%	−10.2%	−4.8%	−0.8%
Return on equity	6.0%	1.5%	3.7%	19.7%	23.1%	28.1%	29.0%	36.0%	−128.2%	50.7%	40.0%	38.4%	29.4%	−41.1%	−98.9%
Return on assets	—	0.3%	0.8%	6.1%	8.8%	10.8%	9.5%	5.5%	−8.8%	4.6%	4.5%	3.4%	1.5%	−1.2%	−2.2%
Asset turnover	—	0.74	0.82	0.89	0.98	1.01	1.02	0.74	0.18	0.56	0.64	0.59	0.55	0.52	0.51
Current ratio	—	0.88	1.14	0.70	0.43	0.46	0.37	0.27	0.44	0.47	0.67	0.32	0.22	0.29	0.30
Debt to equity	0.0%	322.8%	165.8%	97.4%	60.1%	86.9%	101.5%	381.8%	389.3%	156.6%	299.9%	514.7%	>999%	>999%	>999%
Interest cover (operating income ÷ interest)	0.9x	1.1x	2.1x	9.6x	21.5x	19.1x	12.3x	7.1x	n/m	3.5x	3.0x	2.4x	1.6x	0.6x	0.2x
Effective tax rate	—	32.8%	33.6%	35.0%	36.7%	22.7%	20.7%	21.1%	—	14.9%	21.0%	22.2%	16.6%	—	—
Capital spending as % of revenue	12.9%	16.7%	17.4%	18.8%	18.0%	19.3%	17.1%	16.8%	19.0%	7.1%	11.9%	15.0%	24.9%	18.6%	16.2%
Free cash flow ÷ net income	46.8%	183.7%	−562.8%	40.4%	55.9%	37.0%	103.5%	60.7%	—	175.7%	153.3%	26.8%	−373.8%	—	—
Dividends ÷ net income	—	—	—	—	—	—	9.9%	15.7%	—	0.0%	0.0%	—	—	—	—
Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow	—	—	—	—	56.8%	339.3%	132.4%	514.4%	—	0.0%	11.9%	882.4%	—	—	—

US$ thousands unless shown otherwise. Fiscal quarters.

Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc.: financial ratios, quarterly
Quarter	2025 Q3Nov 2024	2025 Q4Feb 2025	2026 Q1May 2025	2026 Q2Aug 2025	2026 Q3Nov 2025	2026 Q4Feb 2026	2027 Q1May 2026	2027 Q2Aug 2026
Gross margin	85.0%	85.5%	85.5%	86.3%	85.8%	85.2%	85.7%	84.7%
Operating margin	1.4%	8.3%	11.1%	9.5%	−3.6%	−2.6%	8.4%	3.6%
Net margin	−7.2%	1.7%	3.8%	2.0%	−9.4%	−7.5%	1.0%	−2.3%
Free-cash-flow margin	−30.6%	−11.4%	−10.4%	−9.9%	−4.6%	6.4%	1.5%	−7.0%
Current ratio	0.29	0.22	0.26	0.33	0.32	0.29	0.29	0.30
Debt to equity	640.7%	>999%	>999%	936.5%	>999%	>999%	>999%	>999%

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

1 of 6 checks passed · August 4, 2026

What it owns · $4.1bn

Short-term assets $128mLonger-term assets $4.0bn

What it owes, and who funded it · $519m

Short-term liabilities $431mShareholders' equity $88m

Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $128m of assets due within a year against $431m of liabilities due within a year.
Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities Not assessable from the reported split. Not assessable.
More cash than debt $16m of cash against $1.5bn of debt.
Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 1715% of equity.
Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 157% to 1715% over five years.
A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $322m of operating cash flow against $1.5bn of debt.
Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Operating income of $36m against $153m of interest.

From Dave & Buster's Entertainment, 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

54 /100

Moderate moat

How hard Dave & Buster's Entertainment'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 3.3% of total assets over 10 years.
Pricing power 20 / 20

Gross margin has been a median 83.8%, moving by 1.1 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
Durability 3 / 20

Operating margin has been a median 12.4%; its worst year was -11.5%.
Cash conversion 9 / 20

Free cash flow was positive in 6 of 10 years, at a median 5.5% of revenue.
Discipline 20 / 20

The diluted share count fell 28.7% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.7% 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.

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Figures from Dave & Buster's Entertainment, 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 Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc.