Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Nov 10, 2026
Acco Brands Corp (ACCO)
A forensic read on Acco Brands Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
0.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
6.5%
ROE
-8.5%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Acco Brands Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.5% in the latest fiscal year, against 1.7% in FY2023, having run between -1.5% and 4.5% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $35M in FY2023 and $78M in FY2025, with operating income at 2.4% of revenue in FY2023, -2.2% in FY2024 and 6.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -17% across FY2023–FY2025, from $2.1B to $1.7B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2023's operating profit carried a $90M goodwill write-off and a $27M restructuring charge that took about 4.4 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $22M restructuring charge that took about 1.1 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 3.3 points to the +2.8-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $128M goodwill write-off and a $17M restructuring charge that alone took about 6.0 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$217M
FY2023–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $217M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2023 ($90M), FY2024 ($128M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.52B
Revenue Growth YoY-8.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-8.8%
Net Margin2.7%
Free Cash Flow$50.8M
Return on Equity6.5%
Debt / Equity1.26x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Acco Brands Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?