Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 12, 2026

Nathans Famous, Inc. (NATH)

A forensic read on Nathans Famous, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

C · Mixed — selective

Forensic grade

Safe

Financial health

13.9

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

20.1

P / E (ttm)

$399M

Market cap

2.03%

Dividend yield

9.4%

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.

Nathans Famous, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 13.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).

What the filings flag

+42.8%

FY2025→FY2026

Accruals ratio (% of NOA). Net operating assets grew +42.8% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). 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 ahead of operating cash by 23% of net operating assets.

stopped

FY2023→FY2024

Shareholder returns — halted. Capital returns have STOPPED — $9M of buybacks + dividends in FY2023, but ~$0 in FY2024. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.

+0.3%/yr

FY2023–FY2026

Share count. Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 3 years to FY2026 (+0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.

-100%

FY2015→FY2016

Dividend — cut. The payout was CUT ~100% in FY2016 (from FY2015) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$162.1M

Revenue Growth YoY+9.4%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+7.4%

Net Margin12.4%

Free Cash Flow$17.9M

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 12, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.