Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 8, 2026
Lindsay Corp (LNN)
A forensic read on Lindsay Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
A · High-quality, modest growth
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
8.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
10.7%
ROE
-6.0%
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.
Lindsay Corp earns an A (High-quality, modest growth) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 8.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
277% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $96M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 277% of free cash flow. That is $61M (177%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash fell $61M over FY2026, while total debt fell $214,000. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $6M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 293%.
10.7%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from 14.5%. After-tax operating profit was $64M in FY2024 and $49M in FY2026, with operating income at 12.6% of revenue in FY2024, 13.0% in FY2025 and 10.5% in FY2026. The capital base behind it went from $444M in FY2024 to $461M in FY2026 (+4%), while the revenue it carried went from $607M to $636M. Across FY2025–FY2026, $88M went into capital expenditure and equity-method investments against $40M of depreciation excluding $4M of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$635.9M
Revenue Growth YoY-6.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.3%
Net Margin8.8%
Free Cash Flow$34.7M
Return on Equity10.7%
Debt / Equity0.23x
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 Lindsay Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?