Forensic Analysis · Household & Personal Care Products · as of Nov 9, 2026
Kenvue Inc. (KVUE)
A forensic read on Kenvue Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
14.4%
ROE
-2.1%
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.
Kenvue Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, 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
8.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.8% in the latest fiscal year, against 9.1% in FY2023, having run between 6.6% and 9.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $1.9B in FY2023 and $1.8B in FY2025, with operating income at 16.3% of revenue in FY2023, 11.9% in FY2024 and 16.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $21.0B in FY2023 to $20.2B in FY2025 (-4%), while the revenue it carried went from $15.4B to $15.1B. FY2024's operating profit carried a $578M asset write-down and a $185M restructuring charge that alone took about 2.7 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+2.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.0%/yr). The count is growing — 1,850.0M shares in FY2023, 1,924.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.0% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~4%.
0.9% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.9% of revenue and 8% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.07 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 2.0% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
103% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.8B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 103% of free cash flow. That is $56M (3%) more than free cash flow covered. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash fell $8M over FY2025, while total debt fell $83M — $8M of the $56M. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $750M of debt repaid; $122M from shares issued; net cash used in investing activities of $436M; net cash used in financing activities of $1.8B. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 29% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $136M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 111%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.12B
Revenue Growth YoY-2.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.0%
Net Margin9.7%
Free Cash Flow$1.72B
Return on Equity14.4%
Debt / Equity0.80x
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 Kenvue Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?