Badger Meter Inc (BMI) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 17, 2026
Badger Meter Inc (BMI)
A forensic read on Badger Meter 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
18.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
30.6
P / E (ttm)
19.9%
ROE
$3.9B
Market cap
0.72%
Dividend yield
10.9%
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
Badger Meter Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 18.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+16.2%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +16.2% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. 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 receivables up +33% against revenue +11%. 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. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 6% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 16.2%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
+0.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($15M) are about offsetting stock comp ($9M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$916.7M
Revenue Growth YoY+10.9%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+17.5%
Net Margin15.5%
Free Cash Flow$169.7M
Return on Equity19.9%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 Badger Meter Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?