Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026

Kennametal Inc (KMT)

A forensic read on Kennametal 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

Safe

Financial health

5.6

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

18.4

P / E (ttm)

7.3%

ROE

$2.4B

Market cap

2.36%

Dividend yield

-3.9%

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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). 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.

Kennametal Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

5.0%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 5.0% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 8% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

102% of FCF

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $122M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 102% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has been CLIMBING toward the limit — 62% of free cash flow a few years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $22M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 121%.

$27M

FY2020–FY2020

Goodwill impairments. Took $27M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($27M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$1.97B

Revenue Growth YoY-3.9%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)-0.8%

Net Margin4.7%

Free Cash Flow$119.4M

Return on Equity7.3%

Debt / Equity0.47x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.