Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026
Preformed Line Products Co (PLPC)
A forensic read on Preformed Line Products Co 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
18.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
55.0
P / E (ttm)
7.4%
ROE
$2.3B
Market cap
0.18%
Dividend yield
12.7%
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 (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.
Preformed Line Products Co earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 18.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+14.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +14.8% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). 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 inventory up +14% against +14% in cost of sales. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 8% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
7.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.8% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 11% — around its ~9% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.
-0.4%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed -1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (-0.4%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($1M) are about offsetting stock comp ($5M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$7M
FY2022–FY2022
Goodwill impairments.Took $7M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2022 ($7M)) — about 12% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-65%
FY2012→FY2013
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~65% in FY2013 (from FY2012) 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$669.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+12.7%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+1.7%
Net Margin5.3%
Free Cash Flow$33.3M
Return on Equity7.4%
Debt / Equity0.08x
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 Preformed Line Products Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?