Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 26, 2026
Hackett Group, Inc. (HCKT)
A forensic read on Hackett Group, 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
5.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
15.3
P / E (ttm)
19.0%
ROE
$254M
Market cap
1.94%
Dividend yield
-2.6%
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.
Hackett Group, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
253% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $82M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 253% of free cash flow. That is $50M (153%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. New debt covered it: total debt rose $63M over FY2025, while cash rose $2M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $11M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 287%.
+11.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.6% 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 behind operating cash by 23% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 11.6%. 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.
11.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 11.0% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 33.1%. After-tax operating profit was $37M in FY2023 and $15M in FY2025, with operating income at 16.6% of revenue in FY2023, 14.2% in FY2024 and 7.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +26% across FY2023–FY2025, from $111M to $139M, while the return fell 22.1 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 33.1% the older base was already earning.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$305.6M
Revenue Growth YoY-2.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+1.5%
Net Margin4.2%
Free Cash Flow$32.4M
Return on Equity19.0%
Debt / Equity1.11x
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 Hackett Group, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?