Note 4 - Investment Securities

12 Months Ended

Feb. 25, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Investments in Debt and Marketable Equity Securities (and Certain Trading Assets) Disclosure [Text Block]

4.

INVESTMENT SECURITIES

The Company’s investment securities as of

February

25,

2017

and

February

27,

2016

are as follows:

(in millions)	February 25, 2017		February 27, 2016
Available-for-sale securities:
Long term	$	19.3	$	19.8
Trading securities:
Long term		70.3		51.5
Held-to-maturity securities:
Short term		-		86.2
Total investment securities	$	89.6	$	157.5

Auction Rate Securities

As of

February

25,

2017

and

February

27,

2016,

the Company’s long term available-for-sale investment securities represented approximately

$20.3

million par value of auction rate securities, consisting of preferred shares of closed end municipal bond funds, less temporary valuation adjustments of approximately

$1.0

million and

$0.5

million, respectively. Since these valuation adjustments are deemed to be temporary, they are recorded in accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of a related tax benefit, and did not affect the Company’s net earnings.

In fiscal

2015,

approximately

$30.7

million of these securities were

tendered

at a price of approximately

94%

of par value for which the Company incurred a realized loss of approximately

$1.8

million, which is included within interest expense, net in the consolidated statement of earnings for fiscal

2015.

U.S. Treasury Securities

As of

February

25,

2017,

the Company had

no

short term held-to-maturity securities. As of

February

27,

2016,

the Company’s short term held-to-maturity securities included approximately

$86.2

million of U.S. Treasury Bills with remaining maturities of less than

one

year. These securities are stated at their amortized cost which approximates fair value, which is based on quoted prices in active markets for identical instruments (i.e., Level

1

valuation).

Long Term Trading Investment Securities

The Company’s long term trading investment securities, which are provided as investment options to the participants of the nonqualified deferred compensation plan, are stated at fair market value. The values of these trading investment securities included in the table above are approximately

$70.3

million and

$51.5

million as of

February

25,

2017

and

February

27,

2016,

respectively.