Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 17, 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
5
Forensic signals
-57.7%
ROE
45.6%
Revenue growth
The financial-health reading above compares this company's equity at BOOK value, not at what the market currently pays for it — this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data. Treat it as a rough read, not the final word.
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.
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 (based on book value, not market value, since this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data — treat this zone as a rough read, not the final word). 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1257.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1257.8% in the latest fiscal year — below the ~9% cost of capital we hold this sector to. If that gap persists through the cycle, incremental reinvestment reduces rather than creates value per share.
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 11.8% 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.
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.
53d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 23 to 53 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +724% vs revenue +46%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2022–FY2025 the day count ran 55 → 28 → 23 → 53 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. 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$5.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+45.6%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+140.9%
Net Margin-105.0%
Free Cash Flow-$4.7M
Return on Equity-57.7%
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?
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed -84% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2024 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw -46.0%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.