Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Sep 24, 2026
Cal-Maine Foods Inc (CALM)
A forensic read on Cal-Maine Foods 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
Safe
Financial health
14.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
10.8
P / E (ttm)
12.0%
ROE
$3.4B
Market cap
9.00%
Dividend yield
-31.7%
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.
Cal-Maine Foods Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 14.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+20.3%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +20.3% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by PP&E up +28% against revenue -32% and inventory up +27% against -7% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 7% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 20.3%. 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.
55d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 42 to 55 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +27% vs -7% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
9.7%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 9.7% in the latest fiscal year, against 14% in FY2024, having run between 9.7% and 51.3% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. The capital base behind it grew +63% across FY2024–FY2026, from $1.7B to $2.8B, while the return fell 4.3 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 14% the older base was already earning.
-28%
FY2025→FY2026
Dividend — cut.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.91B
Revenue Growth YoY-31.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+11.9%
Net Margin10.9%
Free Cash Flow$328.5M
Return on Equity12.0%
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 Cal-Maine Foods Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?