Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
Healthstream Inc (HSTM)
A forensic read on Healthstream Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
5.1%
ROE
4.3%
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.
Healthstream Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.6% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 1.2-point range. After-tax operating profit was $13M in FY2023 and $16M in FY2025, with operating income at 5.7% of revenue in FY2023, 7.3% in FY2024 and 6.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $341M in FY2023 to $348M in FY2025 (+2%), while the revenue it carried went from $279M to $304M. Across FY2024–FY2025, $97M went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $58M of depreciation excluding $27M of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference.
108% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $34M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 108% of free cash flow. That is $3M (8%) more than free cash flow covered. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash and short-term investments fell $40M over FY2025, with total debt flat. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 33% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $8M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 134%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$304.1M
Revenue Growth YoY+4.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+4.4%
Net Margin6.0%
Free Cash Flow$31.2M
Return on Equity5.1%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 Healthstream Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?