Forensic Analysis · Refining & Downstream · as of Nov 8, 2026
Quaker Chemical Corp (KWR)
A forensic read on Quaker Chemical Corp 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
Safe
Financial health
3.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-0.2%
ROE
2.7%
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.
Quaker Chemical Corp earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
1.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 1.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 6.4%. After-tax operating profit was $139M in FY2023 and $34M in FY2025, with operating income at 11.0% of revenue in FY2023, 10.6% in FY2024 and 2.8% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $2.2B in FY2023 to $2.2B in FY2025 (0%), while the revenue it carried went from $2.0B to $1.9B. FY2025's operating profit carried a $89M asset write-down, a $89M goodwill write-off and a $35M restructuring charge that alone took about 6.4 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 4.8-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
94% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $76M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 94% 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 — 13% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $14M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 111%.
$89M
FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $89M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($89M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.89B
Revenue Growth YoY+2.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.7%
Net Margin-0.1%
Free Cash Flow$80.6M
Return on Equity-0.2%
Debt / Equity0.63x
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 Quaker Chemical Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?