For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Burlington Stores (BURL) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to BURL for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Burlington Stores' Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Burlington Stores' main business drivers.
Founded in 1972 and headquartered in New Jersey, Burlington Stores, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company and an off-price retailer operating in the United States and Puerto Rico. Through its subsidiary, Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation, the company provides a complete line of value-priced products, including women’s ready-to-wear apparel, menswear, youth apparel, baby, beauty, footwear, accessories, home, toys, gifts and coats.
Originally established as a coat-focused retailer, Burlington has evolved into a national off-price chain. Its “open to buy” off-price model allows for flexible purchasing of both pre-season and in-season merchandise, enabling the company to adjust quickly to changing consumer preferences and market conditions. This approach ensures access to nationally branded, fashionable and high-quality products at compelling value.
Burlington continues to emphasize its strong heritage in coats and outerwear, maintaining its reputation as a destination for shoppers seeking these categories. At the same time, its broader assortments across apparel, accessories, footwear, home, beauty and toys appeal to a wide demographic, reinforcing its position as a multi-category value retailer.
As of Nov. 1, 2025, Burlington operated 1,211 retail stores across 46 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The company reports results as a single operating segment and derives all revenues from U.S. operations.
(Note: Zacks identifies fiscal years by the month in which the fiscal year ends, while Burlington Stores identifies its fiscal year by the calendar year in which it begins; so comparable figures for any given fiscal year, as published by Burlington Stores, will refer to this same fiscal year as being the year before the same year, as identified by Zacks)
Bottom Line
Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Burlington Stores a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.
A $1000 investment made in December 2015 would be worth $6,501.14, or a 550.11% gain, as of December 24, 2025, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.
Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 234.73% and gold's return of 304.30% over the same time frame.
Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for BURL.
Burlington showed sustained momentum as demand strengthened, driven by higher basket size, improved conversion, and broad-based category performance. Profitability execution remained a key differentiator, driven by disciplined inventory management, improved merchandise mix and ongoing cost-efficiency initiatives. Expansion remains central to the company's growth strategy, supported by a strong new-store pipeline and solid early performance from recent openings. We expect comps to improve 2% year over year in fiscal 2025. Management raised the full-year earnings guidance, projecting adjusted EPS to be between $9.69 and $9.89, up from the previous forecast of $9.19-$9.59. However, risks persist from traffic variability, category and regional inconsistencies, weather sensitivity and an intensely competitive off-price landscape.
Shares have gained 13.75% over the past four weeks and there have been 4 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2026 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.
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Burlington Stores, Inc. (BURL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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