Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Jun 28, 2026
Lifeway Foods, Inc. (LWAY)
A forensic read on Lifeway Foods, 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
Safe
Financial health
9.6
Altman Z-score
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
30.0
P / E (ttm)
17.8%
ROE
$449M
Market cap
Lifeway Foods, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is 9.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio.
What the filings flag
+37.0%Accruals ratio.Net operating assets grew +37.0% relative to their average in FY2025 — the accrual component of earnings. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by +4% of net operating assets.
stoppedShareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $4M of buybacks + dividends in FY2022, but ~$0 in FY2023. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash; understand why before reading it as neutral.
28dInventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 23 to 28 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +37% vs +12% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
14%Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 14% and rising from 2% — around its ~8% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral — watch the trend.
-0.4%/yrShare-count dilution.Diluted share count changed -1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (-0.4%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks are about offsetting stock comp, not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin6.5%
Debt / Equity0.05x
Free Cash Flow$-16.4M
Latest Revenue$212.5M
Return on Equity16.1%
Revenue Growth YoY+13.7%
Go deeper — free with an account
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. An account adds the full interactive deep-dive on Lifeway Foods, Inc.:
🔒The written investment read — what the numbers mean, in plain English
🔒Ask anything about LWAY's filings — AI Q&A across the 10-K, 10-Qs & 8-Ks
🔒Interactive valuation — reverse-DCF sliders, Monte Carlo & scenario stress
🔒Calibrated 12-month price forecast, with the math shown