Forensic Analysis · Restaurants · as of Nov 9, 2026
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc (CBRL)
A forensic read on Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, 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
Distress
Financial health
0.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
6.7%
ROE
-4.7%
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 (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.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.7%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from 2.4%. After-tax operating profit was $41M in FY2024 and ($11M) in FY2026, with operating income at 1.3% of revenue in FY2024, 1.6% in FY2025 and -0.4% in FY2026. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2024–FY2026: short-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged. FY2024's operating profit carried a $16M asset write-down and a $5M goodwill write-off that took about 1.1 points off that year's return, and FY2026's carried a $16M asset write-down that took about 0.9 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 0.2 points to the -3.1-point change across FY2024–FY2026. FY2025's operating profit carried a $18M asset write-down that alone took about 1.0 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$5M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $5M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($5M)) — about 11% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.32B
Revenue Growth YoY-4.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-2.2%
Net Margin1.0%
Free Cash Flow$88.4M
Return on Equity6.7%
Debt / Equity1.02x
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 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?