Forensic Analysis · Restaurants · as of Nov 11, 2026
Jack In The Box Inc (JACK)
A forensic read on Jack In The Box Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-6.7%
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.
Jack In The Box Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.4, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 8.3%. After-tax operating profit was $193M in FY2023 and ($14M) in FY2025, with operating income at 16.5% of revenue in FY2023, 5.3% in FY2024 and -1.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $2.3B in FY2023 to $2.2B in FY2025 (-4%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.7B to $1.5B. FY2025's operating profit carried a $32M goodwill write-off and a $4M asset write-down that alone took about 1.3 points off that year's return, so about 1.3 of the 8.9-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. FY2024's operating profit carried a $163M goodwill write-off and a $8M asset write-down that alone took about 5.8 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$194M
FY2024–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $194M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($163M), FY2025 ($32M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-50%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~50% 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$1.47B
Revenue Growth YoY-6.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-6.9%
Net Margin-5.5%
Free Cash Flow$74.1M
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 Jack In The Box Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?