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Forensic Analysis · Department Stores · as of Nov 8, 2026

Kohls Corp (KSS)

A forensic read on Kohls Corp 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
6.9%
ROE
-4.3%
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.

Kohls Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

4.9%
FY2026
Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.9% in the latest fiscal year, against 5.4% in FY2024, having run between 3.6% and 5.4% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $609M in FY2024 and $505M in FY2026, with operating income at 4.1% of revenue in FY2024, 2.7% in FY2025 and 4.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2024–FY2026: short-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged.
-75%
FY2025→FY2026
Dividend — cut. The payout was CUT ~75% in FY2026 (from FY2025). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$15.53B
Revenue Growth YoY-4.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-5.7%
Net Margin1.8%
Free Cash Flow$1.01B
Return on Equity6.9%
Debt / Equity0.35x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 8, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

See a wrong number? Report an error with the filing it should match.