Forensic Analysis · Durable Goods, Textiles & Apparel · as of Aug 11, 2026
Newell Brands Inc. (NWL)
A forensic read on Newell Brands Inc. 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
Distress
Financial health
-0.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-11.4
P / E (ttm)
-11.9%
ROE
$2.5B
Market cap
4.65%
Dividend yield
-5.0%
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.
Newell Brands Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -0.5, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
0.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 3% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+0.1%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +0% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
706% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $120M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 706% of free cash flow, but 45% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash. Counting the $68M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 1106%.
$777M
FY2019–FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $777M of goodwill writedowns across 4 years (FY2020 ($212M), FY2022 ($164M), FY2023 ($241M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-52%
FY2022→FY2023
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~52% in FY2023 (from FY2022) 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$7.20B
Revenue Growth YoY-5.0%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-8.7%
Net Margin-4.0%
Free Cash Flow$17.0M
Return on Equity-11.9%
Debt / Equity1.95x
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 Newell Brands Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?