Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Aug 11, 2026
Matthews International Corp (MATW)
A forensic read on Matthews International Corp 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
2.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
79.6
P / E (ttm)
-5.1%
ROE
$710M
Market cap
3.69%
Dividend yield
-16.6%
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.
Matthews International Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.7% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -2% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
FCF ($59M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $45M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($59M) 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.
81d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 72 to 81 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory -15% vs -22% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
-0.3%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed -1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (-0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($12M) are about offsetting stock comp ($23M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$267M
FY2019–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $267M of goodwill writedowns across 4 years (FY2020 ($90M), FY2022 ($82M), FY2024 ($17M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.50B
Revenue Growth YoY-16.6%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-5.3%
Net Margin-1.6%
Free Cash Flow-$59.4M
Return on Equity-5.1%
Debt / Equity1.48x
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 Matthews International Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?