Forensic Analysis · Staffing & Help Supply · as of Nov 9, 2026

Barrett Business Services Inc (BBSI)

A forensic read on Barrett Business Services Inc 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

2.9

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

23.5%

ROE

8.4%

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.

Barrett Business Services Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.

What the filings flag

0.91×

FY2023–FY2025

Cash conversion. Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.91× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.

106% of FCF

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $50M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 106% of free cash flow. That is $3M (6%) more than free cash flow covered. Over FY2025 cash and short-term investments rose $35M, so that line did not fund the gap. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $3M from shares issued; $8M of investments purchased; net cash provided by investing activities of $31M; net cash used in financing activities of $53M. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 76% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $10M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 128%.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$1.24B

Revenue Growth YoY+8.4%

Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.7%

Net Margin4.4%

Free Cash Flow$47.2M

Return on Equity23.5%

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 9, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

See a wrong number? Report an error with the filing it should match.