Start here if you're new
what it is
HF Foods moves 2,000+ food and packaging items to Chinese restaurants.
how it gets paid
Last year Hf Food made $1.2B in revenue. Meat & poultry was the main engine at $0.32B, or 27% of sales.
what just happened
Revenue hit $920M, while EPS was -$0.03 and gross margin stayed at 17.0%.
At a glance
C+ balance sheet — struggling to keep the lights on
15/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
35.7x trailing p/e — you're paying up for this one
0.9% return on capital — nothing to write home about
-$0.35 fy2024 eps est
xvary composite: 22/100 — weak
What they do
HF Foods moves 2,000+ food and packaging items to Chinese restaurants.
You are not buying from one warehouse. You are buying from 16 distribution centers and 400+ vehicles. Your restaurant can source 2,000+ products from one vendor, and that makes switching annoying enough to matter.
How they make money
$1.2B
annual revenue
Meat & poultry
$0.32B
Produce
$0.25B
Frozen seafood
$0.23B
General commodities
$0.22B
Packaging & supplies
$0.18B
The products that matter
core food distribution
Specialty Food & Seafood
~$1.0B · 81.3% of revenue
this is the center of gravity. It generated about $1.0B of the $1.23B total, but only grew 2.2% last year. If this segment does not improve economically, the rest of the page is decoration.
81.3% of revenue
non-food distribution
Restaurant Supplies
~$0.2B · 16.3% of revenue
it adds about $0.2B in revenue by selling more items into the same customer base. That's useful for wallet share. It does not fix the margin story by itself.
same-customer sales
miscellaneous operations
Other Operations
~$0.03B · 2.4% of revenue
this is too small to drive the thesis. At roughly $0.03B of revenue, your call on HFFG still comes down to whether core distribution stops destroying profit.
not moving the story
Key numbers
$1.2B
sales
That is 11x the $113M market cap, so the stock is tiny relative to the business.
17.0%
gross profit cushion
That means $17 of every $100 sold stays after product costs, before payroll and rent.
$151M
debt load
That debt stack is 57% of capital, so interest costs can bite fast.
2.8%
profit after overhead
That is only $2.80 left from every $100 sold after operating costs.
Financial health
C+
strength
- balance sheet grade C+ — weak — may struggle to fund operations
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 10 / 100
- long-term debt $151M (57% 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 HFFG right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Revenue hit $920M, while EPS was -$0.03 and gross margin stayed at 17.0%.
Sales were up 200% vs. prior year, but the company still posted a small loss. The 17.0% gross margin tells you the business keeps only $17 of every $100 before overhead.
$300M
revenue
-$0.03
eps
17.0%
gross margin
margin cushion
17.0% gross margin means $17 of every $100 sold stays after product costs, and 2.8% operating margin means only $3 survives overhead.
source: company earnings report, 2026
Get this snapshot in your inbox
This page, delivered free — plus weekly updates when the numbers change. plain english, no spam.
weekly updates
earnings alerts
plain english
no spam
What could go wrong
HF Food Group's problem is brutally simple: the company already runs on a 16.9% gross margin, so $151M of debt and only $12.3M of cash leave almost no shock absorber if freight, labor, or execution move the wrong way.
high
persistent GAAP losses
HF Food reported a $39.3M net loss for FY2025 and a full-year GAAP loss of $(0.70) per share. That is not a cosmetic accounting issue. It says the current business model is still failing to convert scale into shareholder profit.
erodes equity and narrows room to invest
high
debt and liquidity squeeze
Long-term debt is $151M, or 57% of capital, while cash is only $12.3M. That's a tight setup for a company guiding only to low single-digit growth. If operations wobble, financing flexibility gets smaller fast.
raises refinancing pressure and cuts strategic options
med
margin compression
Gross margin compressed to 16.9%. In plain English: HF Food has very little room for freight, labor, or product costs to move higher before profit disappears again.
small margin moves can have outsized earnings impact
med
reporting and governance scrutiny
A June 2024 filing cited a risk that fraud could lead to a material misstatement not being detected. That is not proof of misconduct. It is still the kind of disclosure you do not want attached to a fragile small cap trying to rebuild trust.
can pressure credibility, valuation, and financing confidence
If you own HFFG, your thesis is not complicated. Management has to protect margin, stop the GAAP losses, and keep the balance sheet from getting tighter. If one of those three slips, the equity story gets worse fast.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
gross margin at 16.9%
this is the first number to watch. If margin slips again, low single-digit revenue growth will not save the bottom line.
calendar
atlanta and chicago facility ramps
management expects these sites to contribute through 2026. You want proof they add profitable volume, not just more fixed cost.
trend
institutional holdings rose 4.67%
that is a positive signal at the margin. Keep watching whether it continues, because only 24.0% of the stock is institutionally owned.
risk
new CFO took over jan 27, 2026
Paul McGarry steps into a business with uneven profitability and a weak cash cushion. Finance execution matters here more than polished commentary.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
15 / 100
earnings are hard to model here. in human-speak, analysts do not trust this business to produce smooth quarters.
risk rank
5
this sits near the bottom of the safety stack. In plain English: the market sees a risky small cap, not a defensive distributor.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for HFFG is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$2
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
Want the deeper analysis?
The full deep dive: dcf model, scenario analysis, competitive moat breakdown, and quarterly tracking — everything on this page, taken further.
see plans from $5/moThe deep dive