A forensic read on Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-2.5%
ROE
-0.5%
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.
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.2, placing it in the Grey 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 7.5% in FY2023, having run between -2.1% and 12.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $2.0B in FY2023 and ($693M) in FY2025, with operating income at 19.8% of revenue in FY2023, 36.9% in FY2024 and -7.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +26% across FY2023–FY2025, from $26.7B to $33.8B, while the return fell 9.6 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 7.5% the older base was already earning. FY2025's operating profit carried a $3.7B restructuring charge that alone took about 8.8 points off that year's return, so about 8.8 of the 9.6-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less.
FCF ($3.8B)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.6B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($3.8B) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $3.3B — 49% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $5.3B 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. The balance sheet covered it: cash and short-term investments fell $1.1B and total debt rose $3.5B over FY2025 — $4.6B of the $5.3B. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $4.4B of debt issued against $430M repaid; $1M from shares issued; $118M of investments purchased; net cash used in investing activities of $7.2B; net cash provided by financing activities of $2.8B.
+10.2%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +10.2% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. Net operating assets also rose $41.9M through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by PP&E up +8% against revenue -1%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 12% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 10.2%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$12.04B
Revenue Growth YoY-0.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-2.3%
Net Margin-3.3%
Free Cash Flow-$3.77B
Return on Equity-2.5%
Debt / Equity1.18x
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 Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?