Forensic Analysis · Industrial & Scientific Instruments · as of Nov 9, 2026
ClearSign Technologies Corp (CLIR)
A forensic read on ClearSign Technologies Corp 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
-23.2
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-47.2%
ROE
45.6%
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.
ClearSign Technologies Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -23.2, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-4038.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -4038.4% in the latest fiscal year.
n/m (sign flip)
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets flipped from negative to positive FY2024→FY2025 (FY2024 $-0.3M to FY2025 $+0.4M) — the standard accruals ratio divides by the average of the two, which collapses toward zero right as the sign changes, so the resulting percentage is a denominator artifact, not a real accrual measurement. Treat this as a structural balance-sheet shift to understand on its own terms rather than a clean or dirty accruals read.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.
95d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 17 to 95 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +724% vs revenue +46%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 44 → 17 → 95 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Deferred revenue was roughly flat (-77%) over the same period, which doesn't corroborate a benign upfront-billing explanation for the receivables build. Measured against the same quarter twelve months earlier — like-for-like on the calendar, so an ordinary seasonal build cannot produce it — receivables took longer to collect in 3 consecutive quarters (Dec 2025 +8, Mar 2026 +50, Jun 2026 +21 days). In the latest of them the receivable balance grew +836% against sales +321%, so more of a quarter's billings were still outstanding at the period end than a year earlier — money the company has recognized and not yet been paid. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
17% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 17% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.16 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 13.4% a year across FY2024–FY2025, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. 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$5.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+45.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+47.6%
Net Margin-105.0%
Free Cash Flow-$4.7M
Return on Equity-47.2%
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 ClearSign Technologies Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?