Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
Samsara Inc. (IOT)
A forensic read on Samsara 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
Distress
Financial health
0.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-0.7%
ROE
29.6%
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 (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.
Samsara Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+26.8%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +26.8% relative to their own average in FY2026 — 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. The build is led by receivables up +37% against revenue +30% and payables paid down 26% against +26% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 25% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 26.8%. 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.
-2.9%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -2.9% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -25.4%. After-tax operating profit was ($255M) in FY2024 and ($34M) in FY2026, with operating income at -34.5% of revenue in FY2024, -15.2% in FY2025 and -3.2% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +16% across FY2024–FY2026, from $1.0B to $1.2B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -25.4% the older base was already earning.
+3.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+3.5%/yr). The count is growing — 534.9M shares in FY2024, 573.5M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.5% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~7%.
19% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 19% of revenue and 152% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.55 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 3.5% a year across FY2024–FY2026, and the rate is falling. 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.62B
Revenue Growth YoY+29.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+31.4%
Net Margin-0.6%
Free Cash Flow$207.4M
Return on Equity-0.7%
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 Samsara Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?