Forensic Analysis · Primary Metals & Steel · as of Nov 8, 2026
Broadwind, Inc. (BWEN)
A forensic read on Broadwind, 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
-5.7
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
8.3%
ROE
10.4%
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.
Broadwind, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -5.7, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
-0.61×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was -0.61× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. 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.
+22.1%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +22.1% 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 sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by receivables up +18% against revenue +10%. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 30% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 22.1%. 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.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
9.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 9.3% in the latest fiscal year, against 11.6% in FY2023, having run between 4.6% and 11.6% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $10M in FY2023 and $8M in FY2025, with operating income at 5.5% of revenue in FY2023, 3.0% in FY2024 and 5.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $86M in FY2023 to $84M in FY2025 (-3%), while the revenue it carried went from $203M to $158M.
+3.4%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+3.4%/yr). The count is growing — 21.5M shares in FY2023, 23.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.4% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~6%.
0.4% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.4% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.03 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 3.4% a year across FY2023–FY2025 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$158.1M
Revenue Growth YoY+10.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-11.9%
Net Margin3.3%
Free Cash Flow-$19.0M
Return on Equity8.3%
Debt / Equity0.15x
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 Broadwind, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?