5 companies · median 19 of 36 checks · prices as of 2026-09-08
Specialty retail stocks.
Sorted by how many checks each one passes. Sort by any column to see who is cheapest, who is growing, or who has the strongest balance sheet - and how that compares with what is normal for the industry.
Ranked by checks passed
5 of 201 covered companies→The specialty retailers we cover are not one trade: Ulta Beauty (ULTA) passes 23 of its 36 checks and Wayfair (W) passes 11, with a median of 19.
→AMZN, CVS, ULTA are 99% of the $2.94T we cover here, so a sector average says more about them than about the rest.
 Ulta BeautyULTAThe largest US beauty retailer, from mass brands to prestige, with salons in store.ReportFact sheet | -2.6% | +6.7% | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 23/36 |
 AmazonAMZNRuns the largest US online store and, more profitably, the AWS cloud.ReportFact sheet | -0.6% | +10.6% | 1 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 19/36 |
 ChewyCHWYSells pet food and supplies online, most of it on subscription.ReportFact sheet | -1.7% | -45.0% | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 19/36 |
 CVS HealthCVSRuns CVS pharmacies, the Aetna health insurer and a large pharmacy-benefit manager.ReportFact sheet | -0.7% | +34.3% | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 16/36 |
 WayfairWSells furniture and home goods online, shipped from suppliers' warehouses.ReportFact sheet | +0.5% | +11.6% | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 11/36 |
The filings behind this table close between 2026-05-03 and 2026-08-01, because these companies do not share a fiscal calendar; prices are the close of 2026-09-08. Each name links to its full report; every score is a count of pass-or-fail checks read from that company's own filings.
Where the sector falls short
median score per axis→Value is where the specialty retailers we cover come up short most often, at a median of 3 of 6, while Quality runs at 4.
| Value | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Growth | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Quality | ●●●●○○ | 4 of 6 |
| Health | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Shareholder returns | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Trend analysis | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
What a normal margin looks like here
sector percentiles · 48 filers→Gross margin clusters among specialty retailers, from 29% to 48% across the middle of the field, with a midpoint of 36% measured over 48 filers.
| Metric | Bottom third | Midpoint | Top third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin n=48 | 29.2% | 35.9% | 48.1% |
| Operating margin n=60 | -5.1% | 0.1% | 4.5% |
| Net margin n=61 | -5.9% | -1.0% | 3.8% |
| Return on equity n=45 | -29.1% | -3.5% | 18.7% |
Who grows, and who keeps it
every company in the industry→AMZN, CVS, CHWY, ULTA do both: growing faster than this industry's middle and keeping more of each sale than it does. The industry's middle is 4% growth on a 1% margin.
A year of price
not a fact about the business→4 of 5 are up over twelve months and the median move is +10.6% - CVS Health (CVS) at +34.3% against Chewy (CHWY) at -45.0%. Price is not a fact about a business, and the Trend chapter of each report says what it is measured on.