Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Sep 24, 2026
Ppg Industries Inc (PPG)
A forensic read on Ppg Industries 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
Safe
Financial health
6.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
14.8
P / E (ttm)
19.8%
ROE
$23.8B
Market cap
1.91%
Dividend yield
0.2%
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
Ppg Industries Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 6.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+14.1%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +14.1% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. 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 receivables up +12% against revenue 0% and inventory up +8% against +1% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 3% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 14.1%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
11.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 11.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 13%. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($15.4B to $15.7B, +2%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
122% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.4B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 122% of free cash flow, but 73% 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 $46M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 126%.
$158M
FY2023–FY2023
Goodwill impairments.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.88B
Revenue Growth YoY+0.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.1%
Net Margin9.9%
Free Cash Flow$1.16B
Return on Equity19.8%
Debt / Equity0.92x
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 Ppg Industries Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 24, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Took $158M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($158M)) — about 12% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.