Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Aug 6, 2026
Clearone Inc (CLRO)
A forensic read on Clearone Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-63.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-14.0%
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). 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.
Clearone Inc earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is -63.8, 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). 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
265d
FY2016→FY2017
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 237 to 265 FY2016→FY2017 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +27% vs -7% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
-586.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -586.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from -7% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
FCF ($6M)
FY2024
Shareholder returns.Returned $14M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2024, but free cash flow was ($6M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, and operating cash flow itself was negative or zero that year too. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
suspended
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — suspended.The dividend has been SUSPENDED — $14M paid in FY2024, then $0 in FY2025. A suspension is a major signal the board is conserving cash; the prior payment history doesn't offset it.
n/m (sign flip)
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets flipped from positive to negative FY2024→FY2025 (FY2024 $+19.9M to FY2025 $-0.9M) — 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$41.8M
Revenue Growth YoY-14.0%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-10.3%
Net Margin-33.9%
Free Cash Flow-$6.3M
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 Clearone Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed -93% 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 -58.8%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.