Forensic Analysis · Aerospace & Defense · as of Nov 8, 2026
Greenbrier Companies Inc (GBX)
A forensic read on Greenbrier Companies 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
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
5.1%
ROE
-24.0%
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 (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.
Greenbrier Companies Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
123d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 101 to 123 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +8% vs -19% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
3.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from 8.4%. After-tax operating profit was $235M in FY2024 and $112M in FY2026, with operating income at 9.2% of revenue in FY2024, 11.1% in FY2025 and 5.8% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +11% across FY2024–FY2026, from $2.8B to $3.1B, while the return fell 4.8 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 8.4% the older base was already earning.
FCF ($240M)
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $56M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026, but free cash flow was ($240M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $40M — 141% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.46B
Revenue Growth YoY-24.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-16.7%
Net Margin3.2%
Free Cash Flow-$239.7M
Return on Equity5.1%
Debt / Equity1.17x
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