General - Notes to Financial Statements

9 Months Ended

Nov. 03, 2018

General Dsiclosure [Abstract]

Summary of Significant Account Policies

The condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared from the accounting records of The Cato Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiaries (the “Company”), and all amounts shown as of and for the periods ended November 3, 2018 and October 28, 2017 are unaudited. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for a fair statement have been included. All such adjustments are of a normal, recurring nature unless otherwise noted. The results of the interim period may not be indicative of the results expected for the entire year.

The interim financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto, included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 3, 2018. Amounts as of February 3, 2018 have been derived from the audited balance sheet, but do not include all disclosures required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

On November 20, 2018, the Board of Directors maintained the quarterly dividend at $0.33 per share and increased, by 2 million shares, the authorization to purchase shares under the Company’s share repurchase program.

Recently Adopted Accounting Policies

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606),” that supersedes most current revenue recognition guidance and modifies the accounting treatment for certain costs associated with revenue generation. The core principle of the revised revenue recognition standard is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those good or services, and provides several steps to apply to achieve that principle. In addition, the new guidance enhances disclosure requirements to include more information about specific revenue contracts entered into by the entity. Effective at the beginning of fiscal 2018 the Company adopted this new standard.

The Company has elected the modified retrospective approach to transition to Topic 606. As required by this expedient, the Company assessed its open contracts with customers at February 3, 2018 to determine the cumulative effect of initially applying this standard. The Company concluded that the cumulative effect of initially applying this standard is not material. In addition, the Company assessed the financial line items impacted by adopting this standard compared to the previous revenue guidance. The Company concluded that any differences in financial statement line items are not material. Please refer to Note 11, Revenue Recognition, for incremental disclosures related to this adoption.

In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18, "Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Restricted Cash (a consensus of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force)." This standard requires that restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents be included in cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown in the statement of cash flows. The Company adopted the provisions of ASU 2016-18 in the first quarter of 2018 using the retrospective transition method. The new guidance did not have a material impact on the financial statements.