Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Aug 12, 2026
Clearwater Paper Corp (CLW)
A forensic read on Clearwater Paper Corp 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
Safe
Financial health
3.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-7.6
P / E (ttm)
-2.3%
ROE
$366M
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
12.4%
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). 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.
Clearwater Paper Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-2.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 6% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
FCF ($76M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $17M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($76M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $12M — 140% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
0.93×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, operating cash flow was 0.93× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
68d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 59 to 68 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +9% vs +10% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
$48M
FY2025–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $48M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($48M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.56B
Revenue Growth YoY+12.4%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+9.2%
Net Margin-1.2%
Free Cash Flow-$76.5M
Return on Equity-2.3%
Debt / Equity0.42x
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 Clearwater Paper Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?