Forensic Analysis · Electrical Equipment · as of Nov 9, 2026
Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. (SPB)
A forensic read on Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. 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
5.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
4.9%
ROE
-5.2%
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.
Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
-0.02×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was -0.02× cumulative net income before $111.1M of non-cash goodwill impairment. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
4.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -4.3%. After-tax operating profit was ($162M) in FY2023 and $112M in FY2025, with operating income at -7.0% of revenue in FY2023, 5.8% in FY2024 and 4.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -26% across FY2023–FY2025, from $3.7B to $2.8B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2023's operating profit carried a $243M asset write-down, a $111M goodwill write-off and a $9M restructuring charge that took about 7.7 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $24M asset write-down and a $9M restructuring charge that took about 1.1 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 6.6 points to the +8.4-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $50M asset write-down and a $1M restructuring charge that alone took about 1.0 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, 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.
227% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $375M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 227% of free cash flow. That is $209M (127%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. New debt covered part of it: total debt rose $7M over FY2025 — $7M of the $209M. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $11M of debt repaid; net cash used in investing activities of $38M; net cash used in financing activities of $401M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $20M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 239%.
$111M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $111M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($111M)) — about 6% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.81B
Revenue Growth YoY-5.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.9%
Net Margin3.6%
Free Cash Flow$165.3M
Return on Equity4.9%
Debt / Equity0.30x
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 Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?