Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 25, 2026
Acv Auctions Inc. (ACVA)
A forensic read on Acv Auctions Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-28.9
P / E (ttm)
-15.4%
ROE
$1.8B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
19.2%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Acv Auctions Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.3, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-12.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -12.7% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -17.4%. After-tax operating profit was ($71M) in FY2023 and ($50M) in FY2025, with operating income at -18.6% of revenue in FY2023, -13.2% in FY2024 and -8.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($406M to $393M, -3%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
+3.3%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+3.3%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.3% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~6%.
7% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 7% of revenue and 169% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.33 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 3.3% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$759.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+19.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+25.6%
Net Margin-8.7%
Free Cash Flow$33.6M
Return on Equity-15.4%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Acv Auctions Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?