Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 8, 2026
Park Ohio Holdings Corp (PKOH)
A forensic read on Park Ohio Holdings Corp 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
Safe
Financial health
3.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
6.7%
ROE
-3.4%
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 (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.
Park Ohio Holdings Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.9% in the latest fiscal year, against 7.2% in FY2023, having run between 5.9% and 8.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $67M in FY2023 and $58M in FY2025, with operating income at 5.1% of revenue in FY2023, 5.2% in FY2024 and 4.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $932M in FY2023 to $988M in FY2025 (+6%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.7B to $1.6B. FY2025's operating profit carried a $9M asset write-down that alone took about 0.8 points off that year's return, so about 0.8 of the 1.3-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.
+5.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +12% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+5.7%/yr). The count is growing — 12.5M shares in FY2023, 14.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~5.7% 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 ~10%.
0.3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.3% of revenue and 275% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.39 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 5.7% 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.
116d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 111 to 116 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory 0% vs -3% in cost of sales). Inventory did not fall as fast as cost of sales, so days on hand lengthened — watch for markdowns.
390% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $8M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 390% of free cash flow, but 18% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep. Counting the $6M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 665%.
-8%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~8% 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$1.60B
Revenue Growth YoY-3.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.8%
Net Margin1.5%
Free Cash Flow$2.0M
Return on Equity6.7%
Debt / Equity1.69x
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 Park Ohio Holdings Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?