Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
C3.ai, Inc. (AI)
A forensic read on C3.ai, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-2.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-63.0%
ROE
-35.7%
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 (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.
C3.ai, Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -2.4, 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
-57.4%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -57.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from -32.7%. After-tax operating profit was ($251M) in FY2024 and ($394M) in FY2026, with operating income at -102.5% of revenue in FY2024, -83.4% in FY2025 and -199.2% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -11% across FY2024–FY2026, from $769M to $687M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $544M of the $687M base at FY2026 is short-term investments (79.2%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows.
+8.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +18% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+8.5%/yr). The count is growing — 119.4M shares in FY2024, 140.5M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~8.5% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~15%.
105% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 105% of revenue in FY2026 — about $1.88 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 8.5% a year across FY2024–FY2026 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.
147d DSO
FY2025→FY2026
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 129 to 147 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables -27% vs revenue -36%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2024–FY2026 the day count ran 153 → 129 → 147 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Measured against the same quarter twelve months earlier — like-for-like on the calendar, so an ordinary seasonal build cannot produce it — receivables took longer to collect in 4 consecutive quarters (Oct 2025 +11, Jan 2026 +45, Apr 2026 +61, Jul 2026 +17 days). In the latest of them the receivable balance grew -17% against sales -25%, so more of a quarter's billings were still outstanding at the period end than a year earlier — money the company has recognized and not yet been paid. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2025's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2024–FY2026) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$250.3M
Revenue Growth YoY-35.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-10.2%
Net Margin-187.9%
Free Cash Flow-$192.1M
Return on Equity-63.0%
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 C3.ai, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?