Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Nov 8, 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
6.7%
ROE
-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 (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.
Scholastic Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.3, 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
0.9%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.9% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2024–FY2026, inside a 0.2-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 went from $1.0B in FY2024 to $1.1B in FY2026 (+8%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.6B to $1.6B. Across FY2025–FY2026, $277M went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $102M of depreciation excluding $22M 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. 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. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
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. The FY2026 cash-flow statement filed net cash provided by investing activities of $406M; net cash used in financing activities of $446M. 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 Equity6.7%
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?