Cbiz, Inc. (CBZ) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 24, 2026
Cbiz, Inc. (CBZ)
A forensic read on Cbiz, 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
2.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
22.6
P / E (ttm)
6.6%
ROE
$3.0B
Market cap
52.1%
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.
Cbiz, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.5, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.5% in the latest fiscal year, against 8% in FY2023, having run between 1.4% and 7.9% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it grew +144% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.5B to $3.7B, while the return fell 3.4 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 8% the older base was already earning.
+11.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +25% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+11.8%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~11.8% 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 ~20%.
0.9% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.9% of revenue and 15% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.41 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 12.1% a year 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.
91% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $160M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 91% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has been CLIMBING toward the limit — 50% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $26M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 106%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.76B
Revenue Growth YoY+52.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+31.6%
Net Margin4.2%
Free Cash Flow$175.5M
Return on Equity6.6%
Debt / Equity0.83x
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 Cbiz, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?