Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Sep 25, 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
Distress
Financial health
-1.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
15.6
P / E (ttm)
$476M
Market cap
3.54%
Dividend yield
-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 (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.
Quad/Graphics, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -1.1, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.5%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +3% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.5%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.5% 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 ~3%.
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. Measured against the same quarter twelve months earlier — like-for-like on the calendar, so an ordinary seasonal build cannot produce it — receivables took longer to collect in 4 consecutive quarters (Jun 2025 +4, Sep 2025 +7, Dec 2025 +8, Mar 2026 +5 days). In the latest of them the receivable balance grew +3% against sales -8%, so more of a quarter's billings were still outstanding at the period end than a year earlier — money the company has recognized and not yet been paid. 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.
13.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.2% 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 -25% across FY2023–FY2025, from $818M to $612M, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work. 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 10.7-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 9.9 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.42B
Revenue Growth YoY-9.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-9.5%
Net Margin1.1%
Free Cash Flow$50.7M
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 Quad/Graphics, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?