Central Garden & Pet (CENT) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Central Garden & Pet Company (NASDAQ:CENT) develops, manufactures, and distributes products for the pet and lawn-and-garden markets. Its pet business serves owners of dogs, cats, birds, fish, small animals, and reptiles with products such as toys, chews, treats, habitats, aquatics equipment, bedding, and animal-care supplies.

The company’s lawn-and-garden operations offer grass seed, fertilizer, weed and pest control products, soil amendments, and other gardening supplies. Its portfolio includes brands such as Pennington, Aqueon, Kaytee, Nylabone, Four Paws, API, and Wild Bird.

Founded in 1955, Central Garden & Pet sells its products primarily through mass merchants, home-improvement and garden retailers, pet specialty stores, independent retailers, distributors, and e-commerce channels. The company serves consumers across the United States and also operates in selected international markets.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $45.19 to $45.95
• 50-Day Range: $38.89 to $45.58
• 52-Week Range: $30.22 to $47.36
• Volume: 90,409 shs
• Average Volume: 84,529 shs
• Market Capitalization: $2.85 billion
• P/E Ratio: 17.01
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Price Target: $54.00
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Central Garden & Pet Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Central Garden & Pet scored higher than 55% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 95th out of 168 stocks in the consumer staples sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Central Garden & Pet has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.75, and is based on 1 strong buy rating, 1 buy rating, 2 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Central Garden & Pet has a consensus price target of $54.00, representing about 18.5% upside from its current price of $45.58.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Central Garden & Pet has only been the subject of 1 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 1.34%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Central Garden & Pet are expected to grow by 1.34% in the coming year, from $2.98 to $3.02 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Central Garden & Pet is 17.01, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 26.95.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Central Garden & Pet is 17.01, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Staples sector average P/E ratio of about 25.89.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Central Garden & Pet has a P/B Ratio of 1.81. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 2.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

0.64% of the float of Central Garden & Pet has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Central Garden & Pet has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 4.84.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Central Garden & Pet has recently increased by 6.11%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: N/A

Dividend Yield

Central Garden & Pet does not currently pay a dividend.

Dividend Growth

Central Garden & Pet does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

News and Social Media

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.95

News Sentiment

Central Garden & Pet has a news sentiment score of 0.95. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.58 average news sentiment score of Consumer Staples companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 3 news articles for Central Garden & Pet this week, compared to 4 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 1 people have searched for CENT on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -67% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.2 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Central Garden & Pet insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $192,500.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

8.20% of the stock of Central Garden & Pet is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

16.13% of the stock of Central Garden & Pet is held by institutions.

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 8/05/2026
• Today: 11/01/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/23/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 9/30/2027

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Consumer Staples
• Industry: Household Products
• Sub-Industry: Household Products
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:CENT
• CIK: 887733
• Web: www.central.com
• Phone: (925) 948-4000
• Fax: 302-636-5454
• Employees: 6,000
• Year Founded: 1980

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Central Garden & Pet: $54.00
• High Price Target: $54.00
• Low Price Target: $54.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +18.5%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.75
• Research Coverage: 4 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $2.68
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 17.01
• Forward P/E Ratio: 15.30
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $162.84 million
• Net Margins: 5.39%
• Pretax Margin: 7.11%
• Return on Equity: 11.13%
• Return on Assets: 4.93%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.68
• Current Ratio: 3.79
• Quick Ratio: 2.67

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $3.13 billion
• Price / Sales: 0.91
• Cash Flow: $4.18 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 10.90
• Book Value: $25.21 per share
• Price / Book: 1.81

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 62,590,000
• Free Float: 57,460,000
• Market Cap: $2.85 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.67