Forensic Analysis · Electrical Equipment · as of Nov 9, 2026
Fuelcell Energy Inc (FCEL)
A forensic read on Fuelcell Energy 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
-1.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-28.5%
ROE
41.0%
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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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.
Fuelcell Energy Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -1.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-22.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -22.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from -16.5%. After-tax operating profit was ($108M) in FY2023 and ($152M) in FY2025, with operating income at -110.3% of revenue in FY2023, -141.3% in FY2024 and -121.6% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $650M in FY2023 to $670M in FY2025 (+3%), while the revenue it carried went from $123M to $158M. FY2025's operating profit carried a $66M asset write-down and a $4M goodwill write-off that alone took about 8.2 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 6.2-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+35.6%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +84% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+35.6%/yr). The count is growing — 14.0M shares in FY2023, 25.7M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~35.6% 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 ~46%.
7% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 7% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.43 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 35.6% 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.
-$418.4M
FY2023–FY2025
Cash burn vs. reported loss.Over FY2023–FY2025, the company reported a cumulative net loss of $417.4M against operating cash flow of -$418.4M. Cash burn ran heavier than the reported loss — something outside net income (working capital, a cash item not in the P&L) is consuming cash faster than the loss alone implies.
$4M
FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $4M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($4M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$158.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+41.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+13.2%
Net Margin-118.8%
Free Cash Flow-$143.9M
Return on Equity-28.5%
Debt / Equity0.18x
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 Fuelcell Energy Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?