Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 10, 2026
American States Water Co (AWR)
A forensic read on American States Water Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
25.3
P / E (ttm)
12.5%
ROE
$3.4B
Market cap
2.55%
Dividend yield
10.5%
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). 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 States Water Co earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.4%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+1.4%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.4% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~4%.
FCF ($7M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $75M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($7M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $230M — 32% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
+16.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +16.9% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by PP&E up +9% against revenue +11%. This is the third straight fiscal year of building accruals — a multi-year streak is a materially stronger tell than a single year's move. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 6% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
6.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.2% in the latest fiscal year and steady — around its ~6% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$658.1M
Revenue Growth YoY+10.5%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+10.2%
Net Margin19.8%
Free Cash Flow-$7.1M
Return on Equity12.5%
Debt / Equity0.76x
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 States Water Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?