Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 24, 2026
Esco Technologies Inc (ESE)
A forensic read on Esco Technologies Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
11.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
21.9
P / E (ttm)
19.4%
ROE
$6.9B
Market cap
0.30%
Dividend yield
19.2%
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.
Esco Technologies Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 11.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+22.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +22.8% 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 +14% against revenue +19% and inventory up +11% against +20% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 22.8%. 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.
7.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.1% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.1-point range. The capital base behind it grew +35% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.3B to $1.8B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 7% the older base was already earning.
0.90×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.90× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
+0.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.10B
Revenue Growth YoY+19.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+13.1%
Net Margin27.3%
Free Cash Flow$205.6M
Return on Equity19.4%
Debt / Equity0.12x
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 Esco Technologies Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?