Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 10, 2026
Greif, Inc (GEF)
A forensic read on Greif, 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
3.5
Distress distance
5
Forensic signals
33.6%
ROE
-9.7%
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.
Greif, Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.2% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 6.5%. After-tax operating profit was $321M in FY2023 and $109M in FY2025, with operating income at 10.2% of revenue in FY2023, 7.8% in FY2024 and 4.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $4.9B in FY2023 to $5.0B in FY2025 (+1%), while the revenue it carried went from $4.2B to $3.9B. FY2025's operating profit carried a $40M restructuring charge and a $38M asset write-down that alone took about 1.0 points off that year's return, so about 1.0 of the 4.3-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
FCF ($85M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $101M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($85M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $59M — 173% 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.
0.72×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.72× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
61d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 54 to 61 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +3% vs revenue -10%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Only 72¢ of operating cash arrived for every dollar of profit reported over FY2023–FY2025 ($1.1B against $1.5B), and the receivables balance is one of the places the rest is sitting. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 58 → 54 → 61 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
-16%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~16% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.93B
Revenue Growth YoY-9.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-3.1%
Net Margin21.4%
Free Cash Flow-$85.2M
Return on Equity33.6%
Debt / Equity0.31x
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 Greif, Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?