Forensic Analysis · Household Appliances · as of Nov 9, 2026
Whirlpool Corp /De/ (WHR)
A forensic read on Whirlpool Corp /De/ 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
0.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
11.8%
ROE
-6.5%
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.
Whirlpool Corp /De/ earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.2, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
6.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.4% in the latest fiscal year, against 9.2% in FY2023, having run between 1.2% and 9.2% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $883M in FY2023 and $607M in FY2025, with operating income at 5.2% of revenue in FY2023, 0.9% in FY2024 and 5.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $9.6B in FY2023 to $9.5B in FY2025 (-1%), while the revenue it carried went from $19.5B to $15.5B. FY2024's operating profit carried a $79M restructuring charge that alone took about 0.7 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.
370% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $300M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 370% of free cash flow, but 64% 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 $137M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 540%.
-23%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~23% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.52B
Revenue Growth YoY-6.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-10.7%
Net Margin2.0%
Free Cash Flow$81.0M
Return on Equity11.8%
Debt / Equity2.26x
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 Whirlpool Corp /De/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?