Axon Enterprise, Inc. (AXON) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026
Axon Enterprise, Inc. (AXON)
A forensic read on Axon Enterprise, 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
Safe
Financial health
15.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
211.3
P / E (ttm)
3.8%
ROE
$47.9B
Market cap
33.5%
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.
Axon Enterprise, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 15.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+40.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +40.6% 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 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 inventory up +29% against +33% in cost of sales. This is the fourth straight fiscal year of building accruals — an even longer streak than the 3-year mark that already signals a materially stronger tell. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 3% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
-1.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 4% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+4.3%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +14% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+4.3%/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 ~4.3% 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 ~12%.
23% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 23% of revenue and 845% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $7.70 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 4.3% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.78B
Revenue Growth YoY+33.5%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+32.8%
Net Margin4.5%
Free Cash Flow$75.1M
Return on Equity3.8%
Debt / Equity0.56x
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 Axon Enterprise, Inc.'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.
stopped
FY2016→FY2018
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $34M of buybacks + dividends in FY2016, but ~$0 in FY2018. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.