Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 25, 2026
Applied Digital Corp. (APLD)
A forensic read on Applied Digital Corp. 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
Safe
Financial health
3.3
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-31.6
P / E (ttm)
-10.9%
ROE
$7.9B
Market cap
0.09%
Dividend yield
167.5%
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, 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.
Applied Digital Corp. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+113.9%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +113.9% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by receivables up +724% against revenue +167% and PP&E up +238% against revenue +167%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 20% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 113.9%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
-2.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.6% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -37.8%. After-tax operating profit was ($78M) in FY2024 and ($187M) in FY2026, with operating income at -59.4% of revenue in FY2024, -31.6% in FY2025 and -38.7% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +3393% across FY2024–FY2026, from $205M to $7.2B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -37.8% the older base was already earning.
stopped
FY2025→FY2026
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $31M of buybacks + dividends in FY2025, but ~$0 in FY2026. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
34d DSO
FY2025→FY2026
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$611.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+167.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+92.2%
Net Margin-30.6%
Free Cash Flow-$2.78B
Return on Equity-10.9%
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 Applied Digital Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 25, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Applied Digital Corp. (APLD) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Receivables vs revenue.
Days sales outstanding moved from 11 to 34 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables +724% vs revenue +167%). Across FY2024–FY2026 the day count ran 8 → 11 → 34 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. Receivables grew, but deferred revenue grew +30% over the same period too — rising alongside rising unearned revenue reads as upfront billing on multi-period contracts, not slipping collections. 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.
n/m (stock split)
FY2024–FY2026
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed +141% over the last 2 years to FY2026, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2025 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw +55.3%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
36% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 36% of revenue in FY2026 — about $0.80 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 36.8% a year, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. 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.