Xylem Inc. (XYL) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 24, 2026
Xylem Inc. (XYL)
A forensic read on Xylem Inc. 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
6.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
24.7
P / E (ttm)
8.3%
ROE
$25.4B
Market cap
1.46%
Dividend yield
5.5%
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 (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.
Xylem Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 6.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+5.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +12% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+5.8%/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 ~5.8% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~11%.
7.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 5%. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($12.9B to $13.8B, +7%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
0.6% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.6% of revenue and 6% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.22 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 5.9% a year, and the rate is falling. 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$9.04B
Revenue Growth YoY+5.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+10.8%
Net Margin10.6%
Free Cash Flow$910.0M
Return on Equity8.3%
Debt / Equity0.17x
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 Xylem Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?