Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Sep 25, 2026
Scholastic Corp (SCHL)
A forensic read on Scholastic Corp 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
3.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
11.6
P / E (ttm)
7.6%
ROE
$671M
Market cap
2.00%
Dividend yield
-2.7%
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, 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.
Scholastic Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
1.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 1.0% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2024–FY2026, inside a 0.1-point range. After-tax operating profit was $11M in FY2024 and $10M in FY2026, with operating income at 0.9% of revenue in FY2024, 1.0% in FY2025 and 1.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2024–FY2026 ($1.0B to $1.0B, -1%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on. FY2024's operating profit carried a $10M asset write-down that alone took about 0.7 points off that year's return, so the FY2026 return is being compared with a base year that charge had already pulled down. FY2025's operating profit carried a $3M asset write-down that alone took about 0.2 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
11436% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $286M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 11436% of free cash flow. That is $283M (11336%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. Over FY2026 cash rose $11M and total debt fell $176M, so neither line funded the gap; it was met from balance-sheet lines this read does not cover. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $8M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 11776%.
136d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 131 to 136 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +6% vs -4% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.58B
Revenue Growth YoY-2.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-0.2%
Net Margin3.6%
Free Cash Flow$2.5M
Return on Equity7.6%
Debt / Equity0.11x
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 Scholastic Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?