Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 9, 2026
National Presto Industries Inc (NPK)
A forensic read on National Presto Industries 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
11.0
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
8.7%
ROE
29.7%
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 (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.
National Presto Industries Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 11.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
-0.16×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was -0.16× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
FCF ($36M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $7M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($36M) 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.
+11.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.3% 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 PP&E up +48% against revenue +30% and receivables up +37% against revenue +30%. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 11% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 11.3%. 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.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
8.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 10.2%. After-tax operating profit was $29M in FY2023 and $32M in FY2025, with operating income at 10.3% of revenue in FY2023, 11.6% in FY2024 and 8.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +36% across FY2023–FY2025, from $281M to $382M, while the return fell 1.9 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 10.2% the older base was already earning.
-78%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~78% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$503.5M
Revenue Growth YoY+29.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+21.5%
Net Margin6.6%
Free Cash Flow-$36.2M
Return on Equity8.7%
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 National Presto Industries Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?