Forensic Analysis · Chemicals · as of Nov 11, 2026
Alto Ingredients, Inc. (ALTO)
A forensic read on Alto Ingredients, Inc. 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
-3.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
5.7%
ROE
-4.9%
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.
Alto Ingredients, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -3.2, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.1% in the latest fiscal year, against -5.2% in FY2023, having run between -12.2% and 2.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($19M) in FY2023 and $7M in FY2025, with operating income at -2.0% of revenue in FY2023, -5.4% in FY2024 and 0.8% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: short-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged. FY2023's operating profit carried a $7M asset write-down and a $6M goodwill write-off that alone took about 2.8 points off that year's return, so about 2.8 of the 7.3-point rise across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. FY2024's operating profit carried a $25M asset write-down that alone took about 5.9 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.
FCF ($8M)
FY2023
Shareholder returns.Returned $4M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2023, but free cash flow was ($8M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $22M — 17% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $11M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. 0 cash or debt balance changes listed; read coverage is not recorded; not read: the cash and debt balances for the two year ends. The FY2023 cash-flow statement filed net cash used in investing activities of $33M; net cash provided by financing activities of $7M.
$6M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $6M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($6M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$917.9M
Revenue Growth YoY-4.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-13.4%
Net Margin1.5%
Free Cash Flow$8.6M
Return on Equity5.7%
Debt / Equity0.32x
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 Alto Ingredients, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?