Skip to content
Forensic Analysis · Household & Personal Care Products · as of Nov 8, 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.

C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
3.9%
ROE
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 (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.

Stepan Co earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.7, 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

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 0.8-point range. After-tax operating profit was $49M in FY2023 and $61M in FY2025, with operating income at 2.5% of revenue in FY2023, 3.2% in FY2024 and 3.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $1.9B in FY2023 to $1.8B in FY2025 (-2%), while the revenue it carried went from $2.3B to $2.3B.
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 Equity3.9%
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?

Generate the AI investment read →

No credit card · informational only, not investment advice · see the track record

← Browse all forensic stock analyses

Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 8, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

See a wrong number? Report an error with the filing it should match.