Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Oct 19, 2026
Duluth Holdings Inc. (DLTH)
A forensic read on Duluth Holdings 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-9.7%
ROE
-9.8%
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). 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.
Duluth Holdings Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.1, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-2.9%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.9% in the latest fiscal year, against -2.1% in FY2024, having run between -9.1% and -2.1% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($8M) in FY2024 and ($8M) in FY2026, with operating income at -1.5% of revenue in FY2024, -5.9% in FY2025 and -1.8% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -21% across FY2024–FY2026, from $353M to $278M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2025's operating profit carried a $8M restructuring charge that alone took about 1.9 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
206d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 168 to 206 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory -21% vs -17% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
+2.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+2.5%/yr). The count is growing — 33.0M shares in FY2024, 34.6M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.5% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2024 has been diluted ~5%.
0.4% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.4% of revenue and 15% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.07 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 2.5% a year across FY2024–FY2026 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$565.2M
Revenue Growth YoY-9.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-6.5%
Net Margin-2.9%
Free Cash Flow$16.6M
Return on Equity-9.7%
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 Duluth Holdings Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?