Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
Asana, Inc. (ASAN)
A forensic read on Asana, 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
-8.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-99.1%
ROE
9.2%
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 (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.
Asana, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -8.9, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-65.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -65.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from -59.6%. After-tax operating profit was ($213M) in FY2024 and ($156M) in FY2026, with operating income at -41.4% of revenue in FY2024, -36.8% in FY2025 and -25.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2024–FY2026: 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. FY2026's operating profit carried a $31M asset write-down and a $4M restructuring charge that alone took about 11.4 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 6.0-point fall across FY2024–FY2026 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
172% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $132M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 172% of free cash flow. That is $55M (72%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. New debt covered part of it: total debt rose $37M over FY2026, while cash rose $15M — $22M of the $55M. The FY2026 cash-flow statement filed $4M of debt repaid; $5M from shares issued; $23M from sales and maturities of investments against $179M of investments purchased; net cash provided by investing activities of $37M; net cash used in financing activities of $118M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $215M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 451%.
51d DSO
FY2025→FY2026
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 44 to 51 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables +26% vs revenue +9%). Across FY2024–FY2026 the day count ran 49 → 44 → 51 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 +11% 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.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
+3.7%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+3.7%/yr). The count is growing — 220.4M shares in FY2024, 236.8M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.7% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~7%.
27% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 27% of revenue and 279% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.91 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 3.7% a year across FY2024–FY2026, and the rate is falling. 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$790.8M
Revenue Growth YoY+9.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+10.1%
Net Margin-23.9%
Free Cash Flow$77.0M
Return on Equity-99.1%
Debt / Equity0.53x
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 Asana, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?