Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Sep 24, 2026
Westlake Corp (WLK)
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.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-7.2
P / E (ttm)
-17.2%
ROE
$8.7B
Market cap
1.85%
Dividend yield
-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 (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.
Westlake Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) 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 return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-8.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -8.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 4%. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($15.2B to $15.0B, -2%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
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. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
-0.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (-0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($63M) are about offsetting stock comp ($41M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$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)-5.6%
Net Margin-13.5%
Free Cash Flow-$530.0M
Return on Equity-17.2%
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?