Forensic Analysis · Household & Personal Care Products · as of Nov 10, 2026
Church & Dwight Co Inc /De/ (CHD)
A forensic read on Church & Dwight Co Inc /De/ 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, modest growth
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
17.6%
ROE
1.6%
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.
Church & Dwight Co Inc /De/ earns an A (High-quality, modest growth) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
12.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.2% in the latest fiscal year, against 11.8% in FY2023, having run between 9.2% and 12.2% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $826M in FY2023 and $830M in FY2025, with operating income at 18.0% of revenue in FY2023, 13.2% in FY2024 and 17.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $7.0B in FY2023 to $6.8B in FY2025 (-3%), while the revenue it carried went from $5.9B to $6.2B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $978M went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $244M of depreciation excluding $243M of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference.
109% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.2B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 109% of free cash flow. That is $94M (9%) more than free cash flow covered. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $555M and total debt rose $500,000 over FY2025. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 70% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $58M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 114%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$6.20B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.8%
Net Margin11.9%
Free Cash Flow$1.09B
Return on Equity17.6%
Debt / Equity0.55x
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 Church & Dwight Co Inc /De/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?