Lifeway Foods, Inc. (LWAY)

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s filings since 2017 show 14 warning events of 4 kinds: a notice about its exchange listing (8-K item 3.01, the latest 2022-04-25); a warning not to rely on past financial statements (8-K item 4.02, the latest 2022-05-05); an auditor change (8-K item 4.01, 2 times, the latest 2022-12-07); a late-report notice (Form NT 10-K or NT 10-Q, 10 times, the latest 2022-08-15) (its current reports).

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s 8 filed years say what it did: revenue went from $103 million in fiscal 2018 to $212 million in fiscal 2025, up 10.8% a year; it rose in 6 of 7 years; the deepest fall was 9% from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2019; net income was positive in 7 of 8 of those years (its annual reports).

From the record

Over the 3 fiscal years to 2025-12-31, Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s diluted share count shrank about 0.4% a year, and dividends and buybacks returned about 0% of its operating cash flow over 3 years (its filed statements). Its officers and directors filed 42 sales and 1 purchase of their own stock on the open market in the year to 2026-11-05, buying about $51 thousand (their Form 4 filings).

From the record

Return on equity: in the fiscal year ended 2025-12-31, Lifeway Foods, Inc. earned about 16 cents of profit for every dollar of shareholders' money, and gross profitability: its products earned about 55 cents per dollar of everything the company owns. Leverage: it owed about 19 cents per dollar of assets, and net share issuance: its share count grew 2.7% over the year (the filed statements).

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s standing among 42 graded names in its industry family: revenue of $212 million in fiscal 2025 ranks in the bottom 22% by size; a net margin of 6.5% ranks in the top 23%; revenue growth of 14.5% a year over the last 3 filed years ranks in the top 8% (its annual reports).

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s leadership, from its insiders' filings and its current reports: the chief executive on the record is Smolyansky, Julie (CEO, President and Secretary, as filed), filing under that title since 2006-09-06, 20.2 years (top 2% of its family); the 11 officers and directors filing in the last fifteen months have been on the record a median of 6.3 years (top 34%); 7 officer or director changes were reported on Form 8-K since 2023-11-13, against the 11 people in charge now (bottom 18%; fewer changes for each person reads higher) (the Form 4 record, its Form 8-K reports). Years count from a person's first filing in the SEC's data sets, which begin in 2006, so each is a floor.

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s room to grow, from the newest filed statements (fiscal 2025): cash of $6 million against no long-term debt tagged leaves 5.3% of its assets as net cash, top 30% of its family; cash from operations less capital spending is -7.7% of revenue (bottom 11%); a gross margin of 27.4% (top 44%) (its annual report).

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s growth drivers, from the filed years to fiscal 2025: revenue grew 14.5% a year over the last three filed years against 10.8% over all 8, speeding up (top 6% of its family); the newest year grew 13.8% (top 13%); capital spending grew 99.4% a year (top 4%) (its annual reports). Lifeway Foods, Inc. reported 6 product lines in fiscal 2025: Drinkable Kefirotherthan Pro Bugs at $181 million (85%), Cheese at $17 million (8%), Cream and Other at $9 million (4%), and 3 more; 3 of 6 grew against the year before (its annual report).

From the record

Lifeway Foods, Inc.'s newest year against its own record: revenue of $212 million in fiscal 2025 came in 1% below the $215 million its prior three years' pace pointed to (bottom 42% of its family); net income of $14 million against a prior three-year average of $7 million (top 12%); a net margin of 6.5% against 4.2% before (top 12%) (its annual reports).