Forensic Analysis · Primary Metals & Steel · as of Nov 11, 2026
Quanex Building Products Corp (NX)
A forensic read on Quanex Building Products Corp 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-28.9%
ROE
43.8%
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.
Quanex Building Products Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-8.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -8.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 14.7%. After-tax operating profit was $94M in FY2023 and ($153M) in FY2025, with operating income at 9.8% of revenue in FY2023, 4.3% in FY2024 and -10.6% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +182% across FY2023–FY2025, from $640M to $1.8B, while the return fell 23.2 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 14.7% the older base was already earning. FY2025's operating profit carried a $302M goodwill write-off and a $10M restructuring charge that alone took about 13.7 points off that year's return, so about 13.7 of the 23.2-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+18.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +40% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+18.2%/yr). The count is growing — 33.0M shares in FY2023, 46.2M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~18.2% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~28%.
0.2% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.2% of revenue and 4% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.08 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 18.2% a year across FY2023–FY2025 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
$302M
FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $302M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($302M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.84B
Revenue Growth YoY+43.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+27.5%
Net Margin-13.6%
Free Cash Flow$102.3M
Return on Equity-28.9%
Debt / Equity0.97x
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 Quanex Building Products Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?