Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 11, 2026
Columbus McKinnon Corp (CMCO)
A forensic read on Columbus McKinnon 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-19.7%
ROE
23.9%
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.
Columbus McKinnon Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
177d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 110 to 177 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +207% vs +31% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
-3.3%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -3.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from 5.4%. After-tax operating profit was $81M in FY2024 and ($94M) in FY2026, with operating income at 10.6% of revenue in FY2024, 5.7% in FY2025 and -10.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +92% across FY2024–FY2026, from $1.5B to $2.9B, while the return fell 8.7 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 5.4% the older base was already earning. FY2026's operating profit carried a $200M goodwill write-off that alone took about 5.5 points off that year's return, so about 5.5 of the 8.7-point fall across FY2024–FY2026 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
FCF ($164M)
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $8M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026, but free cash flow was ($164M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, and operating cash flow itself was negative or zero that year too. 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.
+19.7%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +19.7% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. Net operating assets also rose $2.0B through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by PP&E up +285% against revenue +24% and inventory up +207% against +31% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 3% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 19.7%. 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.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
116d DSO
FY2025→FY2026
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 63 to 116 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables +130% vs revenue +24%). Across FY2024–FY2026 the day count ran 62 → 63 → 116 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Receivables grew, but deferred revenue grew +60% over the same period too — rising alongside rising unearned revenue reads as upfront billing on multi-period contracts, not slipping collections. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2025's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2024–FY2026) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
$200M
FY2026
Goodwill impairments.Took $200M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2026 ($200M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.19B
Revenue Growth YoY+23.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.5%
Net Margin-19.2%
Free Cash Flow-$164.1M
Return on Equity-19.7%
Debt / Equity1.64x
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 Columbus McKinnon Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?