Forensic Analysis · Plastics Products · as of Nov 8, 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
-11.1%
ROE
-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 (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.
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 steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.3-point range. After-tax operating profit was ($67M) in FY2023 and $31M in FY2025, with operating income at -1.0% of revenue in FY2023, 0.9% in FY2024 and 0.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -11% across FY2023–FY2025, from $9.3B to $8.3B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2023's operating profit carried a $342M asset write-down, a $241M goodwill write-off and a $95M restructuring charge that took about 5.8 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $346M asset write-down and a $62M restructuring charge that took about 3.9 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 1.9 points to the +1.1-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $353M asset write-down and a $45M restructuring charge that alone took about 3.5 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
50d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 42 to 50 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +12% vs revenue -5%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 54 → 42 → 50 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
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%.
$241M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $241M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($241M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-36%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~36% in FY2024 (from FY2023). 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 (2yr)-5.9%
Net Margin-4.0%
Free Cash Flow$17.0M
Return on Equity-11.1%
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?