Forensic Analysis · Energy / Oil & Gas · as of Sep 24, 2026
California Resources Corp (CRC)
A forensic read on California Resources 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-40.7
P / E (ttm)
9.9%
ROE
$4.6B
Market cap
2.40%
Dividend yield
14.7%
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.
California Resources Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+9.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +21% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+9.8%/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 ~9.8% 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 ~17%.
+11.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.6% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by inventory up +18% against +15% in revenue. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 11% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 11.6%. 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.
7.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.0% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 21%. The capital base behind it grew +116% across FY2023–FY2025, from $2.9B to $6.2B, while the return fell 14.2 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 21% the older base was already earning.
1.1% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.1% of revenue and 7% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.45 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 9.8% a year, 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$3.67B
Revenue Growth YoY+14.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+14.4%
Net Margin9.9%
Free Cash Flow$543.0M
Return on Equity9.9%
Debt / Equity0.35x
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 California Resources Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 24, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
California Resources Corp (CRC) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
94% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $513M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 94% 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 — 48% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $39M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 102%.