A forensic read on Constellation Brands, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
A · High-quality, not compounding
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
22.5%
ROE
-10.5%
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.
Constellation Brands, Inc. earns an A (High-quality, not compounding) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.5, 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
10.4%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.4% in the latest fiscal year, against 10.8% in FY2024, having run between 1.3% and 10.8% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $2.5B in FY2024 and $2.0B in FY2026, with operating income at 31.8% of revenue in FY2024, 3.5% in FY2025 and 29.8% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -17% across FY2024–FY2026, from $23.4B to $19.3B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2025's operating profit carried a $2.7B goodwill write-off that alone took about 10.2 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.
91% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.6B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 91% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has been CLIMBING toward the limit — 60% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $68M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 95%.
$2.7B
FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $2.7B of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($2.7B)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$9.14B
Revenue Growth YoY-10.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-4.2%
Net Margin18.5%
Free Cash Flow$1.79B
Return on Equity22.5%
Debt / Equity1.27x
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 Constellation Brands, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?