Forensic Analysis · Trucking & Courier · as of Nov 8, 2026
Werner Enterprises Inc (WERN)
A forensic read on Werner Enterprises 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
3.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
-1.0%
ROE
-1.8%
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.
Werner Enterprises Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.8, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
0.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 4.8%. After-tax operating profit was $134M in FY2023 and $9M in FY2025, with operating income at 5.4% of revenue in FY2023, 2.2% in FY2024 and 0.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $2.8B in FY2023 to $2.6B in FY2025 (-6%), while the revenue it carried went from $3.3B to $3.0B. FY2025's operating profit carried a $22M asset write-down that alone took about 0.7 points off that year's return, so about 0.7 of the 4.4-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
FCF ($69M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $90M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($69M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $182M — 49% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $158M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. New debt covered part of it: total debt rose $102M over FY2025, while cash rose $19M — $83M of the $158M. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $425M of debt issued against $320M repaid; $88M from sales of property and equipment; net cash used in investing activities of $172M; net cash provided by financing activities of $7M.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.97B
Revenue Growth YoY-1.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-4.8%
Net Margin-0.5%
Free Cash Flow-$68.5M
Return on Equity-1.0%
Debt / Equity0.55x
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 Werner Enterprises Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?