Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Nov 11, 2026
Quad/Graphics, Inc. (QUAD)
A forensic read on Quad/Graphics, Inc. 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
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
-9.4%
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.
Quad/Graphics, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by receivables vs revenue.
What the filings flag
44d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 37 to 44 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +8% vs revenue -9%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 39 → 37 → 44 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
13.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 2.5%. After-tax operating profit was $20M in FY2023 and $81M in FY2025, with operating income at 0.9% of revenue in FY2023, 0.7% in FY2024 and 4.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -26% across FY2023–FY2025, from $818M to $606M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2023's operating profit carried a $25M asset write-down that alone took about 2.4 points off that year's return, so about 2.4 of the 10.8-point rise across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. FY2024's operating profit carried a $75M asset write-down that alone took about 8.4 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.42B
Revenue Growth YoY-9.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-9.5%
Net Margin1.1%
Free Cash Flow$50.7M
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