Ennis, Inc. (EBF) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Aug 9, 2026
Ennis, Inc. (EBF)
A forensic read on Ennis, 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
16.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
13.2
P / E (ttm)
13.8%
ROE
$564M
Market cap
4.50%
Dividend yield
-0.6%
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.
Ennis, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 16.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
63d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 52 to 63 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +41% vs -2% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
+15.4%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +15.4% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by inventory up +41% against -2% in cost of sales. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
13.4%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 19% — a modest positive spread over its ~9% cost of capital — growth adds value, though not dramatically.
-0.3%/yr
FY2023–FY2026
Share count.Diluted share count changed -1% over the last 3 years to FY2026 (-0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($14M) are about offsetting stock comp ($3M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
98% of FCF
FY2026
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$392.4M
Revenue Growth YoY-0.6%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-3.1%
Net Margin10.9%
Free Cash Flow$41.0M
Return on Equity13.8%
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 Ennis, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 9, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Shareholder returns.
Returned $40M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 98% 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 — 64% of free cash flow a few years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $3M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 104%.
-71%
FY2025→FY2026
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~71% in FY2026 (from FY2025). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.