Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Oct 20, 2026
Audioeye Inc (AEYE)
A forensic read on Audioeye Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-11.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-43.2%
ROE
14.5%
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). 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.
Audioeye Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -11.0, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-11.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -11.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -99.6%. After-tax operating profit was ($5M) in FY2023 and ($1M) in FY2025, with operating income at -19.0% of revenue in FY2023, -9.6% in FY2024 and -4.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: short-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged.
162% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $5M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 162% of free cash flow. That is $2M (62%) more than free cash flow covered. The balance sheet's own liquid holdings covered part of it: cash fell $363,000 over FY2025 — $363,000 of the $2M; total debt is not on file on the same basis at both year ends, so whether new borrowing also covered part of it cannot be read. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $13M of debt issued against $7M repaid; $38,000 from shares issued; net cash used in investing activities of $4M; net cash used in financing activities of $920,000. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $5M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 340%.
+2.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +6% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.7%/yr). The count is growing — 11.8M shares in FY2023, 12.4M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.7% 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 ~5%.
12% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 12% of revenue and 178% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.40 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 2.7% a year across FY2023–FY2025 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$40.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+14.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+13.5%
Net Margin-7.6%
Free Cash Flow$2.8M
Return on Equity-43.2%
Debt / Equity2.70x
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 Audioeye Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?