Huron Consulting Group Inc. (HURN) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Aug 11, 2026
Huron Consulting Group Inc. (HURN)
A forensic read on Huron Consulting Group 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
5.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
20.8
P / E (ttm)
19.9%
ROE
$2.4B
Market cap
11.7%
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). 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.
Huron Consulting Group Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+12.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +12.3% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 9% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
12.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.2% in the latest fiscal year and rising from 7% — a modest positive spread over its ~10% cost of capital — growth adds value, though not dramatically.
91% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $167M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 91% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has actually been EASING, not tightening further — down from ~165% of free cash flow a few years back. Counting the $47M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 117%.
$60M
FY2020–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $60M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($60M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.70B
Revenue Growth YoY+11.7%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+13.6%
Net Margin6.2%
Free Cash Flow$183.0M
Return on Equity19.9%
Debt / Equity0.96x
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 Huron Consulting Group Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?