Forensic Analysis · Apparel & Specialty Retail · as of Nov 11, 2026
Zumiez Inc (ZUMZ)
A forensic read on Zumiez 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
3.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
4.1%
ROE
4.5%
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.
Zumiez Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.6, 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
3.1%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -11.9%. After-tax operating profit was ($51M) in FY2024 and $11M in FY2026, with operating income at -7.4% of revenue in FY2024, 0.2% in FY2025 and 1.8% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -17% across FY2024–FY2026, from $431M to $358M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2024's operating profit carried a $44M asset write-down and a $41M goodwill write-off that alone took about 15.6 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 15.0-point rise across FY2024–FY2026 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. FY2025's operating profit carried a $1M asset write-down that alone took about 0.2 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
90% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $38M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 90% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has actually been EASING, not tightening further — down from ~442% of free cash flow the year before. Counting the $7M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 107%.
$41M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $41M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($41M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$929.1M
Revenue Growth YoY+4.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.0%
Net Margin1.4%
Free Cash Flow$42.4M
Return on Equity4.1%
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 Zumiez Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?