KHC · Consumer staples(canned, frozen & preservd fruit, veg & food specialties) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-27
Kraft Heinz Co reported revenue of $24.9 billion in fiscal 2025. Of the $31.5 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 53.3% went to dividends and 21.7% back into the business; the share count fell 2.6%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 0.63 is in the distress zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202524.9B
Operating margin-18.7%gross margin 33.3%
Return on invested capital—5.8% on average over 3 years
Free cash flow after stock pay3.6B14.3% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score5/8tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-20.0B-10.0B010.0B20.0B30.0B
2018
2018
2018Revenue 26.3BOperating income -10.2B
2019Revenue 25.0BOperating income 3.1B
2020Revenue 26.2BOperating income 2.1B
2021Revenue 26.0BOperating income 3.5B
2022Revenue 26.5BOperating income 3.6B
2023Revenue 26.6BOperating income 4.6B
2024Revenue 25.8BOperating income 1.7B
2025Revenue 24.9BOperating income -4.7B
2018201820182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-2.0%
-1.0%
—
Free cash flow per share
+34.9%
-2.7%
—
Dividend per share
+0.3%
+0.1%
—
Shares
-1.3%
-0.7%
-0.3%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
-14.0%
Return on assets
-7.1%
Asset turnover
0.30×
Research & development
0.7% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
52.0% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-15.0B-10.0B-5.0B05.0B
2018
2018
2018Net income -10.2BFree cash flow 1.7BAfter stock-based pay 1.7B
2019Net income 1.9BFree cash flow 2.8BAfter stock-based pay 2.7B
2020Net income 356.0MFree cash flow 4.3BAfter stock-based pay 4.2B
2021Net income 1.0BFree cash flow 4.5BAfter stock-based pay 4.3B
2022Net income 2.4BFree cash flow 1.6BAfter stock-based pay 1.4B
2023Net income 2.9BFree cash flow 3.0BAfter stock-based pay 2.8B
2024Net income 2.7BFree cash flow 3.2BAfter stock-based pay 3.1B
2025Net income -5.8BFree cash flow 3.7BAfter stock-based pay 3.6B
2018201820182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2018–2025
31.5B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 22%6.8B
Acquisitions 3%1.0B
Dividends 53%16.8B
Share buybacks 8%2.4B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 14%4.4B
Over the same years it paid 925.0M in stock. The share count fell 2.6%. 1.5B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-10.00$-5.00$0.00$5.00
2018
2018
2018Earnings per share $-8.36Free cash flow per share $1.43Dividend per share $2.61
2019Earnings per share $1.58Free cash flow per share $2.27Dividend per share $1.60
2020Earnings per share $0.29Free cash flow per share $3.53Dividend per share $1.59
2021Earnings per share $0.82Free cash flow per share $3.61Dividend per share $1.58
2022Earnings per share $1.91Free cash flow per share $1.26Dividend per share $1.59
2023Earnings per share $2.31Free cash flow per share $2.40Dividend per share $1.59
2024Earnings per share $2.26Free cash flow per share $2.60Dividend per share $1.59
2025Earnings per share $-4.93Free cash flow per share $3.08Dividend per share $1.60
2018201820182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
1.2B1.2B1.2B1.2B
2018Diluted shares 1.2B
2018Diluted shares 1.2B
2018Diluted shares 1.2B
2019Diluted shares 1.2B
2020Diluted shares 1.2B
2021Diluted shares 1.2B
2022Diluted shares 1.2B
2023Diluted shares 1.2B
2024Diluted shares 1.2B
2025Diluted shares 1.2B
2018201820182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-4.0B-3.0B-2.0B-1.0B0
2018Net debt -3.3B
2018Net debt -393.0M
2018Net debt -1.1B
2019Net debt -2.3B
2020Net debt -3.4B
2021Net debt -3.4B
2022Net debt -1.0B
2023Net debt -1.4B
2024
2025
2018201820182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
-5× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.15 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 33d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
5of 8 tests passed
✕ProfitableReturn on assets above zerofailed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
✕Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year beforefailed
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
0.63distress zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.02 × 6.56+0.11
Retained earnings ÷ assets -0.06 × 3.26-0.18
Operating income ÷ assets -0.06 × 6.72-0.38
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.04 × 1.05+1.09
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-3.24below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 1.09+1.00
Gross margin slipping 1.04+0.55
Soft assets 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.40
Sales growth 0.97+0.86
Slower depreciation 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.12
Overheads vs sales 1.85-0.32
Profit not in cash -0.13-0.59
Leverage rising 1.31-0.43
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
The effective tax rate is -7.4%.
Benign
A favourable geographic mix, or legitimate tax credits.
Worrying
Not sustainable; projecting it forward inflates the valuation.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
With a free cash flow margin at or below zero in year ten, the business never generates cash for its owners and a DCF says nothing useful. Set a positive margin for year ten to see what it would take.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.