A forensic read on Coca Cola Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
A · High-quality, modest growth
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
46.0%
ROE
1.9%
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 (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.
Coca Cola Co earns an A (High-quality, modest growth) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
180% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $9.5B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 180% of free cash flow. That is $4.2B (80%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $558M and total debt rose $918M over FY2025 — $1.5B of the $4.2B. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $5.0B of debt issued; $313M from shares issued; $13M from sales of property and equipment; net cash used in investing activities of $67M; net cash used in financing activities of $8.1B. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $279M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 185%.
0.75×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.75× cumulative net income before $6.0M of non-cash goodwill impairment. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
+13.5%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.5% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 9% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 13.5%. 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.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.
$6M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $6M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($6M)) — about 0% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$47.94B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.4%
Net Margin27.3%
Free Cash Flow$5.30B
Return on Equity46.0%
Debt / Equity1.36x
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 Coca Cola Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?