Forensic Analysis · Restaurants · as of Nov 9, 2026
Cava Group, Inc. (CAVA)
A forensic read on Cava Group, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
8.6%
ROE
22.4%
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.
Cava Group, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.4, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+40.4%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +40.4% 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. Net operating assets also rose $424,000 through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by receivables up +32% against revenue +22% and PP&E up +23% against revenue +22%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 29% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 40.4%. 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.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.
6.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 0.8%. After-tax operating profit was $4M in FY2023 and $50M in FY2025, with operating income at 0.6% of revenue in FY2023, 4.5% in FY2024 and 4.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +46% across FY2023–FY2025, from $542M to $793M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 0.8% the older base was already earning.
+36.5%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +86% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+36.5%/yr). The count is growing — 63.4M shares in FY2023, 118.3M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~36.5% 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 ~46%.
FCF ($42M)
FY2023
Shareholder returns.Returned $3M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2023, but free cash flow was ($42M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $97M — 3% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $45M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. 0 cash or debt balance changes listed; read coverage is not recorded; not read: the cash and debt balances for the two year ends. The FY2023 cash-flow statement filed $6M of debt issued against $6M repaid; net cash used in investing activities of $139M; net cash provided by financing activities of $335M.
1.3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.3% of revenue and 58% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.13 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 36.5% 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$1.18B
Revenue Growth YoY+22.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+27.2%
Net Margin5.4%
Free Cash Flow$26.1M
Return on Equity8.6%
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 Cava Group, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?