SPB · Technology(miscellaneous electrical machinery, equipment & supplies) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-09-30
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Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. reported revenue of $2.8 billion in fiscal 2025, after shrinking 0.9% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 11.0% in 2016 to 4.4%, and it earned 4.3% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $2.6 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 62.5% went to buybacks and 39.1% to acquisitions; the share count fell 19.1%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 9 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 5.04 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20252.8B-0.9% a year over 9 years
Operating margin4.4%gross margin 36.7%
Return on invested capital4.3%2.2% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay144.8M5.2% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA2.0×net debt 444.3M
Piotroski F-score5/9tests of improvement passed
Share counts are in today's shares. The SEC's filings restate only recent years after a split, so these jumps were read as splits and the older years scaled to match — otherwise per-share figures would compare different units:
1-for-4 before fiscal 2018.
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
-2.0B02.0B4.0B
2016Revenue 3.0BOperating income 334.9M
2017Revenue 3.7BOperating income 287.5M
2018Revenue 3.8BOperating income 224.2M
2019Revenue 2.4BOperating income -152.4M
2020Revenue 2.6BOperating income 8.6M
2021Revenue 3.0BOperating income 97.1M
2022Revenue 3.1BOperating income 23.2M
2023Revenue 2.9BOperating income -205.6M
2024Revenue 3.0BOperating income 170.6M
2025Revenue 2.8BOperating income 124.9M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-3.6%
+1.4%
-0.9%
Operating income
+75.3%
+70.8%
-10.4%
Net income
+11.7%
+0.4%
—
Earnings per share
+30.1%
+12.0%
—
Free cash flow per share
—
+3.0%
-14.7%
Dividend per share
+3.5%
+2.0%
-8.5%
Shares
-14.1%
-10.3%
-2.3%
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
5.2%
Return on assets
3.0%
Asset turnover
0.83×
Research & development
0.8% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
31.4% 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
-1.0B01.0B2.0B
2016Net income -198.8MFree cash flow 852.3MAfter stock-based pay 781.5M
2017Net income 106.0MFree cash flow 758.4MAfter stock-based pay 704.2M
2018Net income 768.3MFree cash flow 267.4MAfter stock-based pay 255.5M
2019Net income 494.5MFree cash flow -39.3MAfter stock-based pay -83.5M
2020Net income 97.8MFree cash flow 246.2MAfter stock-based pay 214.4M
2021Net income 189.6MFree cash flow 244.8MAfter stock-based pay 215.9M
2022Net income 71.6MFree cash flow -117.8MAfter stock-based pay -128.0M
2023Net income 1.8BFree cash flow -468.7MAfter stock-based pay -485.9M
2024Net income 124.8MFree cash flow 118.6MAfter stock-based pay 101.1M
2025Net income 99.9MFree cash flow 165.3MAfter stock-based pay 144.8M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
2.6B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 21%552.1M
Acquisitions 39%1.0B
Dividends 25%645.8M
Share buybacks 62%1.6B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -48%-1.2B
Over the same years it paid 307.2M in stock. The share count fell 19.1%. 1.3B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-20.00$0.00$20.00$40.00$60.00
2016Earnings per share $-6.21Free cash flow per share $26.63Dividend per share $4.13
2017Earnings per share $3.29Free cash flow per share $23.55Dividend per share $0.78
2018Earnings per share $20.76Free cash flow per share $7.23Dividend per share $0.61
2019Earnings per share $9.75Free cash flow per share $-0.78Dividend per share $1.69
2020Earnings per share $2.19Free cash flow per share $5.51Dividend per share $1.68
2021Earnings per share $4.39Free cash flow per share $5.67Dividend per share $1.66
2022Earnings per share $1.75Free cash flow per share $-2.88Dividend per share $1.68
2023Earnings per share $45.61Free cash flow per share $-11.87Dividend per share $1.68
2024Earnings per share $4.09Free cash flow per share $3.89Dividend per share $1.66
2025Earnings per share $3.86Free cash flow per share $6.38Dividend per share $1.86
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
20.0M30.0M40.0M50.0M60.0M
2016Diluted shares 32.0M
2017Diluted shares 32.2M
2018Diluted shares 37.0M
2019Diluted shares 50.7M
2020Diluted shares 44.7M
2021Diluted shares 43.2M
2022Diluted shares 40.9M
2023Diluted shares 39.5M
2024Diluted shares 30.5M
2025Diluted shares 25.9M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
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
02.0B4.0B6.0B
2016Net debt 5.0B
2017Net debt 5.4B
2018Net debt 4.1B
2019Net debt 1.7B
2020Net debt 1.9B
2021Net debt 2.3B
2022Net debt 2.9B
2023Net debt 801.6M
2024Net debt 191.9M
2025Net debt 444.3M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
2.0×
Interest coverage
4× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
2.26 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
101 days collects in 68d, stock 92d, pays in 58d
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 9 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓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 fellfailed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✓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?
5.04safe zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.20 × 6.56+1.28
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.66 × 3.26+2.14
Operating income ÷ assets 0.04 × 6.72+0.25
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.30 × 1.05+1.36
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?
-2.78below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.87+0.80
Gross margin slipping 1.02+0.54
Soft assets 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.40
Sales growth 0.95+0.85
Slower depreciation 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.12
Overheads vs sales 0.98-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.03-0.14
Leverage rising 0.99-0.32
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.
Capital spending (38M) is well below depreciation (98M).
Benign
Mature assets, or a business that has become less capital-intensive.
Worrying
Under-investing: today's profit is being held up by consuming tomorrow's capacity.
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.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 5 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market$182,1251 purchase(s) by 1 insider(s)
Sold on the open market—none in the period
Under pre-arranged plans—of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
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.