Note 5 - Investment Securities

12 Months Ended

Mar. 03, 2018

Notes to Financial Statements

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

5. INVESTMENT SECURITIES

The Company’s investment securities as of

March 3, 2018

and

February 25, 2017

are as follows:

(in millions)	March 3, 2018		February 25, 2017
Available-for-sale securities:
Long term	$	19.4	$	19.3
Trading securities:
Short term		86.3		-
Long term		-		70.3
Held-to-maturity securities:
Short term		291.7		-
Total investment securities	$	397.4	$	89.6

Auction Rate Securities

As of

March 3, 2018

and

February 25, 2017,

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

$0.9

million and

$1.0

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

March 3, 2018,

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

$291.7

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). As of

February 25, 2017,

the Company had

no

short term held-to-maturity securities.

Trading Investment Securities

The Company’s trading investment securities, which are provided as investment options to the participants of the nonqualified deferred compensation plan, are stated at fair market value (See “Employee Benefit Plans,” Note

11

). The values of these trading investment securities included in the table above are approximately

$86.3

million and

$70.3

million as of

March 3, 2018

and

February 25, 2017,

respectively.