The Buckle, Inc. operates as a retailer of casual apparel, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and kids under the Buckle and Buckle Youth brands in the United States. The company markets a selection of brand name casual apparel, including denims, other casual bottoms, tops, sportswear, outerwear, accessories, and footwear, as well as private label merchandise comprising the BKE, Buckle …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 49.0% (top 18%) and operating margin at 20.1% (top 0%) indicate strong pricing power.
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.73), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
Key risks
Revenue Volatility Signals Weak StickinessRevenue volatility is high (stability score 0.36), suggesting weak customer stickiness.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Buckle, Inc. (The) ranks #2 of 34
scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score — the top 6%.
The widest moat in the group is lululemon athletica inc. (LULU)
at 83/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near BKE in Apparel Retail
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 90
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 74
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 89
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 78
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 70
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Buckle, Inc. (The) (BKE) scores 81 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #2 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail, the top 6%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (90/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (70/100).
How does Buckle, Inc. (The) compare with other Apparel Retail companies?
Buckle, Inc. (The) ranks #2 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score. The widest moat in Apparel Retail is lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) at 83 just above it and Abercrombie & Fitch Company (ANF) at 76 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Buckle, Inc. (The) scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Buckle, Inc. (The)?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and BKE scores: Pricing Power (84), Cost Advantage (90), Customer Stickiness (74), Capital Efficiency (89), Resilience (78), Scale & Market Position (70). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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