Forensic Analysis · Durable Goods, Textiles & Apparel · as of Aug 11, 2026
Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB)
A forensic read on Kontoor Brands, Inc. 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
Safe
Financial health
4.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
15.5
P / E (ttm)
40.3%
ROE
$4.3B
Market cap
2.69%
Dividend yield
20.9%
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.
Kontoor Brands, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+66.0%
FY2024→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +66.0% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by inventory up +45% against +20% in cost of sales and receivables up +13% against revenue +21%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 19% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
120d
FY2024→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 98 to 120 FY2024→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +45% vs +20% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead. FY2024 and FY2026 aren't consecutive filed years here, so FY2026's opening balance can't be taken from FY2024 — both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, which keeps the two endpoints comparable to each other.
13.5%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 25% — a modest positive spread over its ~9% cost of capital — growth adds value, though not dramatically.
-0.4%/yr
FY2022–FY2026
Share count.Diluted share count changed -1% over the last 4 years to FY2026 (-0.4%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($25M) are about offsetting stock comp ($39M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.15B
Revenue Growth YoY+20.9%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+9.9%
Net Margin7.2%
Free Cash Flow$434.8M
Return on Equity40.3%
Debt / Equity2.02x
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 Kontoor Brands, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?