Forensic Analysis · Consulting & Engineering Services · as of Nov 9, 2026
Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. (BWMN)
A forensic read on Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. 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
1.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
5.1%
ROE
14.9%
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 (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.
Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.0, 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
4.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.9% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -0.2%. After-tax operating profit was ($518,240) in FY2023 and $18M in FY2025, with operating income at -0.2% of revenue in FY2023, -0.5% in FY2024 and 4.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +41% across FY2023–FY2025, from $255M to $359M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -0.2% the older base was already earning.
+15.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +34% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+15.8%/yr). The count is growing — 12.5M shares in FY2023, 16.7M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~15.8% 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 ~25%.
4% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 4% of revenue and 57% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $1.12 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 15.8% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. 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$490.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+14.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+19.0%
Net Margin2.6%
Free Cash Flow$33.1M
Return on Equity5.1%
Debt / Equity0.22x
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 Bowman Consulting Group Ltd.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?