Curiositystream Inc. (CURI) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Sep 27, 2026
Curiositystream Inc. (CURI)
A forensic read on Curiositystream Inc. 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
-13.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-15.5%
ROE
40.1%
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.
Curiositystream Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -13.2, 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). 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-21.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -21.3% in the latest fiscal year, against -88.0% in FY2023, having run between -88.0% and -19.3% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($35M) in FY2023 and ($6M) in FY2025, with operating income at -78.2% of revenue in FY2023, -26.1% in FY2024 and -10.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -32% across FY2023–FY2025, from $40M to $27M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $9M of the $27M base at FY2025 is short-term investments (33.1%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows. FY2023's operating profit carried a $19M asset write-down that alone took about 37.6 points off that year's return, so about 37.6 of the 66.7-point rise across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more.
170% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $22M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 170% of free cash flow. That is $9M (70%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash and short-term investments fell $5M over FY2025 — $5M of the $9M, with the rest met from lines this read does not cover. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $14M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 281%.
+4.3%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +9% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+4.3%/yr). The count is growing — 53.0M shares in FY2023, 57.7M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.3% 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 ~8%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$71.7M
Revenue Growth YoY+40.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+12.2%
Net Margin-9.0%
Free Cash Flow$13.0M
Return on Equity-15.5%
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 Curiositystream Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 27, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
20% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 20% of revenue and 111% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.25 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 4.3% a year across FY2023–FY2025 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.