Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Sep 24, 2026
Avery Dennison Corp (AVY)
A forensic read on Avery Dennison Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
5.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
18.0
P / E (ttm)
30.7%
ROE
$13.1B
Market cap
1.71%
Dividend yield
1.1%
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.
Avery Dennison Corp earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
121% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $861M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 121% of free cash flow. That is $148M (21%) more than free cash flow covered. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $126M and total debt rose $581M over FY2025. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $28M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 125%.
+11.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.7% 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. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 11.7%. 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.
10.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.6% in the latest fiscal year, against 10% in FY2023, having run between 10.0% and 12.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($5.9B to $6.5B, +9%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$8.86B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.9%
Net Margin7.8%
Free Cash Flow$712.4M
Return on Equity30.7%
Debt / Equity1.66x
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 Avery Dennison Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?