Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 9, 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.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
26.6%
ROE
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 (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.
Azz Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.2, 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
+9.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +20% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+9.5%/yr). The count is growing — 25.2M shares in FY2024, 30.2M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~9.5% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~17%.
10.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.0% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2024–FY2026, inside a 1.4-point range. After-tax operating profit was $173M in FY2024 and $200M in FY2026, with operating income at 14.4% of revenue in FY2024, 15.0% in FY2025 and 16.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it went from $2.0B in FY2024 to $2.0B in FY2026 (0%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.5B to $1.7B.
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 9.5% a year across FY2024–FY2026, 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
Latest Revenue$1.65B
Revenue Growth YoY+4.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.6%
Net Margin19.2%
Free Cash Flow$444.7M
Return on Equity26.6%
Debt / Equity0.36x
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?