Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Sep 24, 2026
Kronos Worldwide Inc (KRO)
A forensic read on Kronos Worldwide 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
2.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-8.4
P / E (ttm)
-14.8%
ROE
$970M
Market cap
8.93%
Dividend yield
-1.5%
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
Kronos Worldwide Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.5, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-2.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.0% in the latest fiscal year, against -3% in FY2023, having run between -3.5% and 5.7% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it grew +11% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.3B to $1.4B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -3% the older base was already earning.
FCF ($40M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $23M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($40M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $2M — 920% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
0.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (0.0%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
-58%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~58% 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$1.86B
Revenue Growth YoY-1.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+5.6%
Net Margin-6.0%
Free Cash Flow-$40.4M
Return on Equity-14.8%
Debt / Equity0.74x
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 Kronos Worldwide Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?