Forensic Analysis · Packaged Foods · as of Nov 9, 2026
Post Holdings, Inc. (POST)
A forensic read on Post Holdings, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
8.6%
ROE
3.0%
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.
Post Holdings, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.7, placing it in the Grey zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.2% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.4-point range. After-tax operating profit was $454M in FY2023 and $604M in FY2025, with operating income at 8.6% of revenue in FY2023, 10.0% in FY2024 and 9.8% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $10.7B in FY2023 to $11.6B in FY2025 (+8%), while the revenue it carried went from $7.0B to $8.2B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $2.1B went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $616M of depreciation excluding $385M of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference.
145% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $709M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 145% of free cash flow, but 71% 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 $82M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 162%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$8.16B
Revenue Growth YoY+3.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.0%
Net Margin4.1%
Free Cash Flow$488.1M
Return on Equity8.6%
Debt / Equity1.98x
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 Post Holdings, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?