Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Sep 24, 2026
Stepan Co (SCL)
A forensic read on Stepan Co 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
Safe
Financial health
3.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-515.7
P / E (ttm)
3.8%
ROE
$1.5B
Market cap
1.83%
Dividend yield
7.0%
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.
Stepan Co earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.3% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.7-point range. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($1.9B to $1.8B, -2%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
-0.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (-0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
138% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $35M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 138% of free cash flow, but 24% 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 $6M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 162%.
$8M
FY2023–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $8M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2023 ($2M), FY2025 ($6M)) — about 6% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.33B
Revenue Growth YoY+7.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+0.1%
Net Margin2.0%
Free Cash Flow$25.4M
Return on Equity3.8%
Debt / Equity0.50x
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 Stepan Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?