Acco Brands
ACCO on NYSE. Acco Brands sells office and school supplies to businesses and consumers. Market value $401m.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Cash flow or capital spending isn't reported, so free cash flow is unknown.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Media & telecom stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
We could not compute this from the filings.
You pay 14.3 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 2 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 33 of 100. Price score: 79 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$4.37 a share, 56% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $2.81 to $4.56.
Dividend: 6.7% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $2.0bn | $1.9bn | $1.8bn | $1.7bn | $1.5bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 7.5% | 1.8% | 2.4% | -2.2% | 6.1% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 1.16 | 1.24 | 1.18 | 1.39 | 1.27 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.09bn | 0.09bn | 0.09bn | 0.09bn | 0.09bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive2 of 2 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 9
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt1.27× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsShrinking, 1.6% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 2% fewer since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $415 million last quarter, up 5% on a year ago.
- Profit: $14 million, down 52% on a year ago.
- It keeps 5 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 6 cents a year earlier.
- 3% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
- Debt is $827 million more than cash, down from $854 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in 2 of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $421m |
| December 2024 | $448m |
| March 2025 | $317m |
| June 2025 | $395m |
| September 2025 | $384m |
| December 2025 | $429m |
| March 2026 | $344m |
| June 2026 | $415m |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $9m |
| December 2024 | $21m |
| March 2025 | -$13m |
| June 2025 | $29m |
| September 2025 | $4m |
| December 2025 | $21m |
| March 2026 | $19m |
| June 2026 | $14m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 9 March 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 30 October 2026
Who owns it
3 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 4 last quarter. 198 funds in all.
- LSV Asset ManagementJosef Lakonishok
- Value
- $12m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce
- Value
- $89,515
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| LSV Asset ManagementJosef Lakonishok | $12m | <0.1% | |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $416,196 | <0.1% | Cut |
| Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce | $89,515 | <0.1% |
Sold out this quarter
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$37mAdded
- Allspring Global Investments Holdings$31mCut
- Capital Management$29m
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$18m
- Vanguard Capital Management$16m
- American Century Companies$12mCut
- LSV Asset Management$12m
- Goldman Sachs Group$11mCut
- Geode Capital Management$10mAdded
- State Street$9mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
3 investors own more than 5%.
- Allspring Global Investments Holdings, LLCPassive investor8.1%+1.5 ptsSince 30 June 2025
- The Capital Management CorporationPassive investor7.6%+1.5 ptsSince 31 March 2026
- Wellington Management Group LLPPassive investorat least 2.3%(filed with 2 related holders)Since 31 December 2024
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LPPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 31 December 2025
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Allspring Global Investments Holdings, LLC Passive investor | 8.1%+1.5 pts | 30 June 2025 | |
The Capital Management Corporation Passive investor | 7.6%+1.5 pts | 31 March 2026 | |
Wellington Management Group LLP Passive investor | at least 2.3% (filed with 2 related holders) | 31 December 2024 | |
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 31 December 2025 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 1 sold $230,012.
- Jones Angela YSVP, Global Chief People OfficSold
- Date
- 28 May 2026
- Shares
- 57,217
- Price
- $4.02
- Value
- $230,012
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 May 2026 | Jones Angela Y SVP, Global Chief People Offic | Sold | 57,217 | $4.02 | $230,012 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 9 Mar 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 31 Jul 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- Sales have shrunk: 1.6% a year.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.