Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026
American Superconductor Corp /De/ (AMSC)
A forensic read on American Superconductor Corp /De/ 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
Safe
Financial health
6.5
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
12.0
P / E (ttm)
24.1%
ROE
$1.5B
Market cap
34.3%
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). 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.
American Superconductor Corp /De/ earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 6.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
0.42×
FY2024–FY2026
Cash conversion.Over FY2024–FY2026, operating cash flow was 0.42× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
+111.6%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +111.6% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by receivables up +50% against revenue +34% and inventory up +46% against +29% in cost of sales. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 42% of net operating assets.
2.2%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.2% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -38% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+16.4%/yr
FY2023–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +58% over the last 3 years to FY2026 (+16.4%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. Note: the share count shows a large one-time jump around FY2013, consistent with a reverse split or bankruptcy reorg rather than gradual buybacks, so the earlier shrinkage doesn't reflect real repurchase discipline. That's ~16.4% 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 ~37%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$299.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+34.3%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+41.3%
Net Margin44.7%
Free Cash Flow$18.3M
Return on Equity24.1%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 American Superconductor Corp /De/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
American Superconductor Corp /De/ (AMSC) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
5% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 5% of revenue and 87% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.36 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 16.7% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
stopped
FY2025→FY2026
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $126,000 of buybacks + dividends in FY2025, but ~$0 in FY2026. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.