A forensic read on Westlake Corp 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
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-15.6%
ROE
-8.0%
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.
Westlake Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, 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
-8.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -8.2% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 3.6%. After-tax operating profit was $544M in FY2023 and ($1.2B) in FY2025, with operating income at 5.8% of revenue in FY2023, 7.2% in FY2024 and -14.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $15.2B in FY2023 to $15.3B in FY2025 (0%), while the revenue it carried went from $12.5B to $11.2B. FY2023's operating profit carried a $475M asset write-down and a $128M goodwill write-off that took about 3.0 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $727M asset write-down and a $727M goodwill write-off that took about 7.5 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 4.5 points off the -11.8-point change across FY2023–FY2025. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
FCF ($530M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $335M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($530M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $465M — 72% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $865M 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. The balance sheet covered it: cash fell $195M and total debt rose $1.0B over FY2025.
$855M
FY2023–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $855M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2023 ($128M), FY2025 ($727M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$11.17B
Revenue Growth YoY-8.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-5.7%
Net Margin-13.5%
Free Cash Flow-$530.0M
Return on Equity-15.6%
Debt / Equity0.64x
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 Westlake Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?