Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Aug 11, 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.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
22.7
P / E (ttm)
13.7%
ROE
$36.6B
Market cap
4.38%
Dividend yield
-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 (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.
Kenvue Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+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: 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%.
+11.2%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.2% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +10% against revenue -2%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 7% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
8.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.5% in the latest fiscal year and steady — around its ~8% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.
103% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.8B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 103% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has been CLIMBING toward the limit — 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%
Net Margin9.7%
Free Cash Flow$1.72B
Return on Equity13.7%
Debt / Equity0.79x
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?