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what it is
AMCON moves cigarettes, snacks, drinks, and groceries to 6,800 stores, then also runs a small natural foods retail business.
how it gets paid
Last year Dit made $2.8B in revenue. cigarettes and tobacco was the main engine at $1.34B, or 48% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 3.9% last year. Revenue rose 3% vs. prior year to $730 million.
what just happened
Latest quarter revenue hit $730M and EPS reached $1.28, but the real story is that gross margin stayed stuck at 6.6%.
At a glance
C balance sheet — red flag territory — real financial stress
40/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
125.7x trailing p/e — you're paying up for this one
0.6% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
2.1% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 15/100 — weak
What they do
AMCON moves cigarettes, snacks, drinks, and groceries to 6,800 stores, then also runs a small natural foods retail business.
This is a route business. AMCON already reaches 6,800 retail outlets and carries more than 20,000 products, so your corner store can place one order instead of juggling dozens of vendors. Scale → more trucks and products in motion → so what: that convenience keeps the wholesale machine relevant even when margins sit at just 0.7%.
How they make money
$2.8B
annual revenue · their business grew +3.9% last year
cigarettes and tobacco
$1.34B
candy and confectionery
$0.34B
beverages and groceries
$0.67B
frozen, chilled, and foodservice
$0.25B
retail health food
$0.20B
The products that matter
wholesale distribution
Convenience & Foodservice Distribution
$2.7B · 96% of revenue
this is the whole thesis. It generated about $2.7B of revenue last year, but the company still produced only $3.9M of operating income overall. Volume is not the problem. Margin is.
center of gravity
retail store operations
Retail Health & Natural Foods
$112M · 4% of revenue
this segment is real, but it is small. At $112M in revenue, it does not offset a stumble in the $2.7B distribution business.
too small to rescue the model
Key numbers
0.7%
operating margin
That means AMCON keeps 70 cents for every $100 in sales before interest and taxes. You are betting on precision, not cushion.
125.7x
trailing p/e
Price-to-earnings → how many years of current profit you are paying for → so what: this is expensive for a distributor with thin margins.
$161M
long-term debt
Debt is 69% of capital, which is heavy for a business earning just 2.1% on capital.
$3.0B
fy2025 sales est.
Sales scale is not the issue. Turning that scale into durable profit is.
Financial health
C
strength
- balance sheet grade C — very weak — significant financial distress
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 25 / 100
- long-term debt $161M (69% of capital)
C — balance sheet grade and long-term debt are flagged. this stock carries more risk than average.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for DIT right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
Latest quarter revenue hit $730M and EPS reached $1.28, but the real story is that gross margin stayed stuck at 6.6%.
Revenue rose 3% vs. prior year to $730 million, while EPS more than doubled to $1.28 from a year-ago comparison. Gross margin was 6.6%, so AMCON still needs volume and cost control to turn sales into actual profit.
$730M
revenue
$1.28
eps
6.6%
gross margin
the number that mattered
Gross margin at 6.6% mattered most because this business lives or dies on pennies. Revenue can rise and EPS can bounce, but margin decides whether the gains stick.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the top risk here is margin compression in convenience distribution. When you keep only $3.9M of operating profit on $2.8B of sales, even a small cost move can wreck the quarter.
high
margin compression in the core distribution business
The company ran at a 0.54% operating margin on roughly $2.8B of revenue. Freight costs, mix changes, tobacco pricing, or execution misses do not need to be dramatic to do damage.
impact: the entire operating cushion was only $3.9M
high
debt load that outweighs the equity story
Long-term debt stands at $161M, or 69% of capital. Against a $73M market cap, that debt pile is about 2.2x the value the market puts on the equity.
impact: leverage limits your room for operational mistakes
med
revenue concentration in one low-quality segment
Convenience & Foodservice generated about $2.7B of revenue, or 96% of the total. The $112M health-food business exists, but it is too small to offset weakness in the core distribution engine.
impact: 96% of revenue depends on one thin-margin model
0.54% operating margin plus $161M of debt is the setup. If the recent earnings pop fades, the balance sheet becomes the story fast.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
operating margin
0.54% is the whole problem. If you see progress toward 1%, the story changes. If it stays pinned near zero, the stock stays hard to defend.
risk
debt versus market cap
$161M of long-term debt against a $73M market cap means the lenders matter more than the optics of a small stock price.
calendar
next earnings filing
The last quarter was strong. The next report needs to show that $1.29 EPS was not a one-quarter outlier.
trend
segment mix staying concentrated
Convenience & Foodservice is 96% of revenue. Until that changes, your entire thesis sits on one distribution model.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
40 / 100
in human-speak, analysts do not see this as a steady earner. Expect uneven quarters.
risk rank
5
Safer than only 5% of stocks in this framework. That puts you near the risky end of the board.
price stability
25 / 100
The stock does not trade like a sleepy distributor. It moves like a thinly covered small cap.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for DIT is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$112
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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