Forensic Analysis · Automotive / Vehicle Manufacturing · as of Aug 10, 2026
Standard Motor Products, Inc. (SMP)
A forensic read on Standard Motor Products, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound but lumpy
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
17.6
P / E (ttm)
6.0%
ROE
$899M
Market cap
3.36%
Dividend yield
22.4%
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). 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.
Standard Motor Products, Inc. earns a B (Sound but lumpy) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.0, 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
6.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 8% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+13.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.7% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by inventory up +14% against +18% in cost of sales and receivables up +10% against revenue +22%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 1% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
+0.5%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +2% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.5%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
146% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $27M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 146% of free cash flow, but 47% 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 $8M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 186%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.79B
Revenue Growth YoY+22.4%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+9.3%
Net Margin2.3%
Free Cash Flow$18.7M
Return on Equity6.0%
Debt / Equity0.90x
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 Standard Motor Products, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?