Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 11, 2026
Dick'S Sporting Goods, Inc. (DKS)
A forensic read on Dick'S Sporting Goods, 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
Safe
Financial health
4.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
20.2
P / E (ttm)
15.3%
ROE
$19.0B
Market cap
2.52%
Dividend yield
28.1%
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). 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.
Dick'S Sporting Goods, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+68.3%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +68.3% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by PP&E up +70% against revenue +28% and inventory up +47% against +34% in cost of sales. This is the third straight fiscal year of building accruals — a multi-year streak is a materially stronger tell than a single year's move. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 15% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
7.1%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.1% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 25% — slightly below its ~9% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.
190% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $761M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 190% of free cash flow, but 50% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $124M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 221%.
$5M
FY2024–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $5M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($5M)) — about 0% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$17.22B
Revenue Growth YoY+28.1%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+11.6%
Net Margin4.9%
Free Cash Flow$400.2M
Return on Equity15.3%
Debt / Equity0.35x
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 Dick'S Sporting Goods, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?