Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Sep 24, 2026
Msa Safety Inc (MSA)
A forensic read on Msa Safety 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
10.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
22.1
P / E (ttm)
20.4%
ROE
$7.1B
Market cap
1.13%
Dividend yield
3.7%
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 (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.
Msa Safety Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 10.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+18.1%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +18.1% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by inventory up +16% against +6% in cost of sales and receivables up +10% against revenue +4%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 5% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 18.1%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
13.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.4% in the latest fiscal year, against 9% in FY2023, having run between 8.8% and 16.6% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it grew +23% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.7B to $2.1B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 9% the older base was already earning.
-0.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (-0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($90M) are about offsetting stock comp ($15M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.87B
Revenue Growth YoY+3.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+2.4%
Net Margin14.9%
Free Cash Flow$295.4M
Return on Equity20.4%
Debt / Equity0.42x
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 Msa Safety Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?