Forensic Analysis · Homebuilders & Residential Construction · as of Nov 9, 2026
Granite Construction Inc (GVA)
A forensic read on Granite Construction 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
17.6%
ROE
10.4%
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.
Granite Construction Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.1, placing it in the Grey zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+33.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +33.8% 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. Net operating assets also rose $238.0M through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by PP&E up +76% against revenue +10% and inventory up +32% against +8% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 17% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 33.8%. 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.
11.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 11.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 3.7%. After-tax operating profit was $52M in FY2023 and $215M in FY2025, with operating income at 2.3% of revenue in FY2023, 5.2% in FY2024 and 6.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +36% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.4B to $1.9B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 3.7% the older base was already earning.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.42B
Revenue Growth YoY+10.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+12.3%
Net Margin4.4%
Free Cash Flow$330.6M
Return on Equity17.6%
Debt / Equity1.14x
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