Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Jun 27, 2026
INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO /NEW/ (IP)
A forensic read on INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO /NEW/ 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
Distress
Financial health
0.9
Altman Z-score
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-20.4%
ROE
$20.5B
Market cap
5.01%
Dividend yield
INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO /NEW/ earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is 0.9, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio.
What the filings flag
+60.0%Accruals ratio.Net operating assets grew +60.0% relative to their average in FY2025 — the accrual component of earnings. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by -29% of net operating assets.
-9%Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -9% and slipping from 8% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+12.6%/yrShare-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +38% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+12.6%/yr). The count is GROWING — existing holders are being diluted. That's ~12.6% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~38%.
$2.6BGoodwill impairments.Took $2.6B of goodwill writedowns across 3 year(s) (FY2019 ($60M), FY2022 ($76M), FY2025 ($2.5B)) — about 114% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.
-14%Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~14% in FY2022 (from FY2021). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies — weigh the cut when judging reliability.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin-14.9%
Debt / Equity0.66x
Free Cash Flow$-159.0M
Latest Revenue$23.63B
Return on Equity-23.7%
Revenue Growth YoY+49.3%
Go deeper — free with an account
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. An account adds the full interactive deep-dive on INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO /NEW/:
🔒The written investment read — what the numbers mean, in plain English
🔒Ask anything about IP's filings — AI Q&A across the 10-K, 10-Qs & 8-Ks
🔒Interactive valuation — reverse-DCF sliders, Monte Carlo & scenario stress
🔒Calibrated 12-month price forecast, with the math shown