Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Sep 25, 2026
Victoria'S Secret & Co. (VSXY)
A forensic read on Victoria'S Secret & Co. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
16.4
P / E (ttm)
18.8%
ROE
$6.6B
Market cap
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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.
Victoria'S Secret & Co. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+2.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+2.5%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.5% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~5%.
0.8% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.8% of revenue and 18% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.66 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 2.5% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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.
stopped
FY2024→FY2026
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $125M of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2026. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
8.2%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.2% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2024–FY2026, inside a 1.0-point range. After-tax operating profit was $194M in FY2024 and $244M in FY2026, with operating income at 4.0% of revenue in FY2024, 5.0% in FY2025 and 4.1% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +10% across FY2024–FY2026, from $2.7B to $3.0B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 7.1% the older base was already earning.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$6.55B
Revenue Growth YoY+5.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.0%
Net Margin2.5%
Free Cash Flow$312.0M
Return on Equity18.8%
Debt / Equity1.14x
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 Victoria'S Secret & Co.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?