Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 25, 2026
Avantor, Inc. (AVTR)
A forensic read on Avantor, 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
Safe
Financial health
2.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-18.5
P / E (ttm)
-9.5%
ROE
$10.0B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
-3.4%
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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.
Avantor, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1.9% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.7% in FY2023, having run between -1.9% and 8.5% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $545M in FY2023 and ($194M) in FY2025, with operating income at 10.0% of revenue in FY2023, 16.0% in FY2024 and -3.8% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -12% across FY2023–FY2025, from $11.5B to $10.1B, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work. FY2023's operating profit carried a $161M asset write-down and a $26M restructuring charge that took about 1.3 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $785M asset write-down, a $785M goodwill write-off and a $30M restructuring charge that took about 12.5 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 11.2 points off the -6.6-point change across FY2023–FY2025.
+0.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($75M) are about offsetting stock comp ($46M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$785M
FY2025–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $785M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($785M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$6.55B
Revenue Growth YoY-3.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-3.0%
Net Margin-8.1%
Free Cash Flow$495.0M
Return on Equity-9.5%
Debt / Equity0.71x
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 Avantor, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?