Forensic Analysis · Trading Companies & Distributors · as of Aug 12, 2026
Aspen Aerogels Inc (ASPN)
A forensic read on Aspen Aerogels 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
-8.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-4.1
P / E (ttm)
-165.4%
ROE
$510M
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
-40.1%
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.
Aspen Aerogels Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -8.6, 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
-140.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -140.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from -22% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
97d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 72 to 97 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables -68% vs revenue -40%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2021–FY2025 the day count ran 54 → 79 → 97 → 72 → 97 days — the latest step continues a climb that was already under way, which is the persistence that separates a collection problem from a busy quarter.
70d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 59 to 70 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory -20% vs -17% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
n/m (stock split)
FY2022–FY2025
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed +109% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2023 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 +27.9%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.10 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count, and there it has run at about 15.8% a year and is falling.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$271.1M
Revenue Growth YoY-40.1%
Net Margin-143.7%
Free Cash Flow-$4.6M
Return on Equity-165.4%
Debt / Equity0.38x
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 Aspen Aerogels Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?