Forensic Analysis · Trucking & Courier · as of Nov 9, 2026
Covenant Logistics Group, Inc. (CVLG)
A forensic read on Covenant Logistics Group, 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
1.7%
ROE
2.9%
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.
Covenant Logistics Group, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.7, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
0.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 5.4%. After-tax operating profit was $44M in FY2023 and $2M in FY2025, with operating income at 5.3% of revenue in FY2023, 4.0% in FY2024 and 0.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $830M in FY2023 to $870M in FY2025 (+5%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.1B to $1.2B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $332M went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $159M of depreciation excluding $20M 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. FY2025's operating profit carried a $11M goodwill write-off that alone took about 1.0 points off that year's return, so about 1.0 of the 5.1-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 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 ($34M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $44M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($34M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $114M — 38% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $78M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $31M and total debt rose $47M over FY2025.
$11M
FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $11M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($11M)) — about 148% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.16B
Revenue Growth YoY+2.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.7%
Net Margin0.6%
Free Cash Flow-$33.9M
Return on Equity1.7%
Debt / Equity0.74x
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 Covenant Logistics Group, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?