Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 10, 2026
Braze, Inc. (BRZE)
A forensic read on Braze, 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
Distress
Financial health
-0.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-23.9%
ROE
24.4%
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.
Braze, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -0.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-22.2%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -22.2% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -25.2%. After-tax operating profit was ($114M) in FY2024 and ($114M) in FY2026, with operating income at -30.7% of revenue in FY2024, -20.6% in FY2025 and -19.6% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +14% across FY2024–FY2026, from $453M to $516M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -25.2% the older base was already earning.
+4.9%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +10% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+4.9%/yr). The count is growing — 98.1M shares in FY2024, 107.9M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.9% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~9%.
19% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 19% of revenue and 248% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $1.33 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 4.9% a year across FY2024–FY2026 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$738.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+24.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+25.1%
Net Margin-17.8%
Free Cash Flow$58.1M
Return on Equity-23.9%
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 Braze, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?