WENThe Wendy's Company
Is it safe?
Solid, nothing alarming: clean books, but heavy debt (B) and big price swings.
Mixed, watch the balance sheet Altman Z-score, a bankruptcy-risk model from five balance-sheet ratios.
Reported earnings show no manipulation flags Beneish M-score, a forensic model that detects earnings-manipulation patterns (receivables outrunning sales, margins slipping, accrual-heavy profit).
Mixed fundamental signals Piotroski F-score, nine pass/fail tests of year-over-year financial health across profitability, balance sheet and efficiency. 7 to 9 is strong, 0 to 3 weak.
Highly leveraged, watch solvency. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Large price swings, high volatility. Worst drawdown -73% · now 32% below its 52-week high.
Unless marked, from SEC EDGAR, as of Dec 28, 2025.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can WEN take a bad year?
The Wendy's Company carries $2.41B of net debt at 5.26× EBITDA: a heavy load to carry through a bad year.
Net debt · as at Q2 2026 · over four years of earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, heavy
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 5.26×
Net debt / EBITDA · 4.69× a year ago · the load is going up
- Altman Z-score
- 1.03
Altman Z-score · distress zone, below 1.8
- Interest cover
- 2.27×
Interest cover · operating profit covers the interest bill, with room to spare
Details›
- Total debtQ2 2026
- $2.75B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $341M
- Net debt
- $2.41B
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $458M
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $300M
- Debt / equity
- 22.8×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 6.01×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 46%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −73%
- Below its 52-week high
- 32%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.