Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 25, 2026
Datadog, Inc. (DDOG)
A forensic read on Datadog, 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
Safe
Financial health
16.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
464.9
P / E (ttm)
2.9%
ROE
$90.3B
Market cap
27.7%
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.
Datadog, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 16.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+77.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +77.7% 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 sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by receivables up +24% against revenue +28%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 39% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 77.7%. 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.
-0.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.8% in the latest fiscal year, against -1.0% in FY2023, having run between -1.0% and 1.8% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($27M) in FY2023 and ($38M) in FY2025, with operating income at -1.6% of revenue in FY2023, 2.0% in FY2024 and -1.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +79% across FY2023–FY2025, from $2.6B to $4.7B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -1.0% the older base was already earning.
+1.9%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.9%/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 ~1.9% 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 ~4%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.43B
Revenue Growth YoY+27.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+26.9%
Net Margin3.1%
Free Cash Flow$914.7M
Return on Equity2.9%
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 Datadog, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?