Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 11, 2026

Bark, Inc. (BARK)

A forensic read on Bark, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

F · Poor — capital at risk

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

-6.7

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

-54.2%

ROE

-18.5%

Revenue growth

The financial-health reading above compares this company's equity at BOOK value, not at what the market currently pays for it — this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data. Treat it as a rough read, not the final word.

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.

Bark, Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -6.7, placing it in the Distress zone (based on book value, not market value, since this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data — treat this zone as a rough read, not the final word). 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

-37.2%

FY2026

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is -37.2% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -41% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

FCF ($27M)

FY2026

Shareholder returns. Returned $2M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026, but free cash flow was ($27M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, and operating cash flow itself was negative or zero that year too. 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.

195d

FY2025→FY2026

Inventory days. Days inventory outstanding moved from 173 to 195 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory -14% vs -16% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.

n/m (stock split)

FY2023–FY2026

Share count (stock split). Diluted share count changed -95% over the last 3 years to FY2026, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2024 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 -63.6%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.

4% of rev

FY2026

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$394.8M

Revenue Growth YoY-18.5%

Net Margin-9.9%

Free Cash Flow-$26.6M

Return on Equity-54.2%

Debt / Equity0.00x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.