Forensic Analysis · Furniture & Home Furnishings · as of Nov 8, 2026
Hni Corp (HNI)
A forensic read on Hni Corp 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
4.1%
ROE
12.4%
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.
Hni Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+36.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +36.3% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. Net operating assets also rose $1.0B through acquisitions (shares issued for businesses); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by inventory up +145% against +11% in cost of sales and PP&E up +115% against revenue +12%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 11% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 36.3%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
73d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 48 to 73 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +145% vs +11% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
3.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.3% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.7% in FY2023, having run between 3.3% and 11.2% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $69M in FY2023 and $82M in FY2025, with operating income at 3.7% of revenue in FY2023, 8.2% in FY2024 and 4.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +72% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.4B to $2.5B, while the return fell 1.4 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 4.7% the older base was already earning. FY2023's operating profit carried a $32M asset write-down and a $28M goodwill write-off that alone took about 3.1 points off that year's return, so the FY2025 return is being compared with a base year that charge had already pulled down. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$28M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $28M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($28M)) — about 56% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.
+3.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +8% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+3.8%/yr). The count is growing — 45.4M shares in FY2023, 48.9M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.8% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~7%.
0.9% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.9% of revenue and 12% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.51 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 3.8% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. 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$2.84B
Revenue Growth YoY+12.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.0%
Net Margin1.9%
Free Cash Flow$208.5M
Return on Equity4.1%
Debt / Equity0.70x
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 Hni Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?