Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 22, 2026
Curtiss Wright Corp (CW)
A forensic read on Curtiss Wright Corp 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 compounder
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
12.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
38.9
P / E (ttm)
19.1%
ROE
$21.0B
Market cap
0.37%
Dividend yield
12.1%
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
Curtiss Wright Corp earns an A (High-quality compounder) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 12.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
12.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2021–FY2025 from 9% — a modest positive spread over the ~9% cost of capital we hold this sector to — the capital already deployed adds value, though not dramatically. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2021–FY2025: cash 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.
90% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $500M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 90% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has been CLIMBING toward the limit — 33% of free cash flow a few years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $22M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 94%.
$10M
FY2020–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $10M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($10M)) — about 5% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.50B
Revenue Growth YoY+12.1%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+11.0%
Net Margin13.8%
Free Cash Flow$553.7M
Return on Equity19.1%
Debt / Equity0.38x
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 Curtiss Wright Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?