Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Jun 28, 2026
Designer Brands Inc. (DBI)
A forensic read on Designer Brands Inc. 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
Distress
Financial health
0.8
Altman Z-score
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
31.0
P / E (ttm)
3.6%
ROE
$317M
Market cap
3.40%
Dividend yield
Designer Brands Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is 0.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2%Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2% and slipping from 14% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
1% of revStock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1% of revenue and 24% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.39 per diluted share. Meaningful — reported free cash flow flatters the economics, since SBC is a real cost paid in shares.
-90%Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~90% in FY2021 (from FY2020). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies — weigh the cut when judging reliability.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin-0.3%
Debt / Equity1.54x
Free Cash Flow$78.3M
Latest Revenue$2.89B
Return on Equity-3.0%
Revenue Growth YoY-3.9%
Go deeper — free with an account
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. An account adds the full interactive deep-dive on Designer Brands Inc.:
🔒The written investment read — what the numbers mean, in plain English
🔒Ask anything about DBI's filings — AI Q&A across the 10-K, 10-Qs & 8-Ks
🔒Interactive valuation — reverse-DCF sliders, Monte Carlo & scenario stress
🔒Calibrated 12-month price forecast, with the math shown