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Forensic Analysis · Packaged Foods · as of Nov 9, 2026

Hormel Foods Corp /De/ (HRL)

A forensic read on Hormel Foods Corp /De/ built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
6.0%
ROE
1.6%
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 (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.

Hormel Foods Corp /De/ earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

4.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 7.4%. After-tax operating profit was $839M in FY2023 and $517M in FY2025, with operating income at 8.9% of revenue in FY2023, 9.0% in FY2024 and 5.9% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $11.4B in FY2023 to $11.3B in FY2025 (0%), while the revenue it carried went from $12.1B to $12.1B.
118% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns. Returned $633M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 118% of free cash flow, but 75% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $26M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 123%.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$12.11B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-0.0%
Net Margin4.0%
Free Cash Flow$534.3M
Return on Equity6.0%
Debt / Equity0.36x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 9, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

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