Forensic Analysis · Packaged Foods · as of Nov 10, 2026
Utz Brands, Inc. (UTZ)
A forensic read on Utz Brands, Inc. 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
Distress
Financial health
0.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
0.1%
ROE
2.1%
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.
Utz Brands, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.3, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
0.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.6% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.1-point range. After-tax operating profit was $13M in FY2023 and $15M in FY2025, with operating income at 1.1% of revenue in FY2023, 4.2% in FY2024 and 1.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $2.5B in FY2023 to $2.4B in FY2025 (-4%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.4B to $1.4B. FY2023's operating profit carried a $13M asset write-down that alone took about 0.4 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 0.1-point rise across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+4.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +8% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+4.0%/yr). The count is growing — 81.1M shares in FY2023, 87.8M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.0% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~8%.
1.2% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.2% of revenue and 182% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.19 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 4.0% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
237% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $22M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 237% of free cash flow, but 20% 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 $17M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 419%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.44B
Revenue Growth YoY+2.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+0.0%
Net Margin0.1%
Free Cash Flow$9.4M
Return on Equity0.1%
Debt / Equity1.19x
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 Utz Brands, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?