Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Sep 10, 2026
Lakeland Industries Inc (LAKE)
A forensic read on Lakeland Industries Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-19.6%
ROE
15.2%
Revenue growth
The financial-health reading above compares this company's equity at BOOK value, not at what the market currently pays for it — this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data. Treat it as a rough read, not the final word.
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
Lakeland Industries Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.6, placing it in the Safe zone (based on book value, not market value, since this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data — treat this zone as a rough read, not the final word). 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-7.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -7.0% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 4% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, and it has been across FY2024–FY2026, so reinvested dollars have not been earning their keep.
+5.6%/yr
FY2022–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +24% over the last 4 years to FY2026 (+5.6%/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 ~5.6% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~20%.
1.8% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.8% of revenue in FY2026 — about $0.35 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 8.1% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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.
FCF ($16M)
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $1M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026, but free cash flow was ($16M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, and operating cash flow itself was negative or zero that year too. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$192.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+15.2%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+251.9%
Net Margin-13.1%
Free Cash Flow-$16.4M
Return on Equity-19.6%
Debt / Equity0.25x
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 Lakeland Industries Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 51 to 57 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables +16% vs revenue +15%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Measured against the same quarter twelve months earlier — like-for-like on the calendar, so an ordinary seasonal build cannot produce it — receivables took longer to collect in 4 consecutive quarters (Oct 2025 +5, Jan 2026 +10, Apr 2026 +6, Jul 2026 +5 days). In the latest of them the receivable balance grew +4% against sales -4%, so more of a quarter's billings were still outstanding at the period end than a year earlier — money the company has recognized and not yet been paid.
$13M
FY2025–FY2026
Goodwill impairments.Took $13M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2025 ($11M), FY2026 ($3M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.