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The Moat Index

CAVA Group, Inc.

CAVA · Consumer Discretionary · $8.0B mkt cap · FY2025 filings · Shallow moat ·

Doesn't clear the bar

45/ 100
Shallow moat

The four filters

Pricing power11

Median gross margin 17.4% over 3y, variable.

Returns on capital45

Median ROIC 10.0%, above the 9% hurdle in 67% of years.

Balance-sheet safety100

Net cash position — no leverage risk.

Capital discipline40

Owner earnings trend unclear, share count growing (dilution).

Margin of safety

Above valueOn sale
5319% above value
Owner earnings (normalized)
$13.3M
Est. intrinsic value / share
$1.27
Recent price
$68.85
Discount to value
5319% above value

Conservative model: 9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth (capped at 4%), maintenance capex ≈ min(capex, D&A).

6 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

It earned 10.0% on invested capital in FY2025, with a median of 10.0% across 3 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 45/100.

CAVA's filings don't disclose total debt in a form the methodology can use, so leverage is treated as unmeasured — never assumed to be zero.

Put together: Balance-Sheet Safety is the strongest of the four filters (100/100) and Pricing Power the weakest (11/100), which is how CAVA lands at 45/100 — a Shallow moat.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

FY2020–FY2025 · 6 fiscal years, normalized from CAVA’s SEC filings

RevenueSales, as filed$1.2B FY2025
$0$500M$1B2020202220242025
Gross marginRevenue kept after cost of goods24.7% FY2023
0%10%20%2020202220242025
Return on invested capitalOperating profit on the capital employed10.0% FY2025
0%5%10%2020202220242025
Owner earningsCash an owner could take out$63.7M FY2025
$0$100M2020202220242025

Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in CAVA’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Moat Score history

1 logged reading since Jul 18, 2026 · append-only, never rewritten

Moat Score over timeLast scored reading of each day, on the 0–100 scale44.9 / 100
0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatJul 18, 2026

Score history begins Jul 18, 2026 — the record builds from here and can’t be backfilled.

Tier changesSame-methodology crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars

None yet — CAVA has read Shallow moat for every logged capture since Jul 18, 2026.

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can’t be backfilled, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.

Track record

How CAVA Group, Inc.’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.

As-of scores 2023–2025, one methodology version · reconstructed from filings on file each Dec 31 — never with hindsight

As-of Moat Score (dot colored by tier)Indexed price (total-return (dividends reinvested))Rated Wide-moat that year

How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored CAVA on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.

0406080100WideNarrowShallowNo moatAs-of Moat Score100200Indexed price · log scale (2024 = 100)2023202420252026

Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.

What followed, in the years it rated Wide

In the reconstructed history shown, CAVA did not rate Wide-moat in any year, so there is no wide-moat track record to report. That absence is itself the honest answer — we don’t manufacture a comparison where the rating never earned one.

Consumer Discretionary context

#189 of 359 scored Consumer Discretionary companies, ranked by Moat Score.

Nearest peers by Moat Score

  1. #187TLYS TILLY'S, INC.45.0Shallow moat
  2. #188SVV Savers Value Village, Inc.45.0Shallow moat
  3. #190IMKTA INGLES MARKETS, INCORPORATED44.5Shallow moat
  4. #191PKE Park Aerospace Corp.44.4Shallow moat

Compare CAVA with its nearest peers →All Consumer Discretionary companies on the Index →

Common questions about CAVA

Does CAVA Group, Inc. have an economic moat?
Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores CAVA Group, Inc. (CAVA) 44.9 out of 100 — a Shallow moat. The four filters behind that score (each 0–100): pricing power 11, returns on capital 45, balance-sheet safety 100, capital discipline 40.
Is CAVA stock trading below its intrinsic value?
Against a deliberately conservative owner-earnings model (9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth, capped at 4%), estimated intrinsic value is $1.27 per share versus a recent price of $68.85 — 5319% above value. This is an educational estimate computed from primary SEC filings, not investment advice.
How has CAVA's Moat Score changed over time?
The record logs 1 reading since Jul 18, 2026; the latest reads 44.9 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.
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Scored from primary SEC filings via the public methodology. Educational only — not a recommendation to buy or sell CAVA. See the disclaimer.