Forensic Analysis · Packaged Foods · as of Nov 9, 2026
Freshpet, Inc. (FRPT)
A forensic read on Freshpet, 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
3.6
Distress distance
4
Forensic signals
12.3%
ROE
13.0%
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.
Freshpet, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.2% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -2.2%. After-tax operating profit was ($24M) in FY2023 and $68M in FY2025, with operating income at -4.0% of revenue in FY2023, 3.9% in FY2024 and 6.9% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +22% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.1B to $1.3B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -2.2% the older base was already earning.
+7.9%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +16% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+7.9%/yr). The count is growing — 48.2M shares in FY2023, 56.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~7.9% 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 ~14%.
1.3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.3% of revenue and 112% 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 7.9% 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.
+16.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +16.8% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 2% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 16.8%. 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.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.10B
Revenue Growth YoY+13.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+19.9%
Net Margin12.6%
Free Cash Flow$12.4M
Return on Equity12.3%
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 Freshpet, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?