Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 13, 2026
Azz Inc (AZZ)
A forensic read on Azz Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
A · High-quality, lumpy growth
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
7.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
20.1
P / E (ttm)
23.7%
ROE
$4.1B
Market cap
1.39%
Dividend yield
4.6%
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.
Azz Inc earns an A (High-quality, lumpy growth) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 7.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+4.9%/yr
FY2022–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +21% over the last 4 years to FY2026 (+4.9%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.9% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~17%.
10.1%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising from 6% — around its ~9% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.
0.9% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.9% of revenue and 3% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.49 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 6.3% a year, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
-37%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~37% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin19.2%
Debt / Equity0.36x
Free Cash Flow$444.7M
Latest Revenue$1.65B
Return on Equity23.7%
Revenue Growth YoY+4.6%
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 Azz Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?