Knife River Corp (KNF) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Sep 24, 2026
Knife River Corp (KNF)
A forensic read on Knife River Corp 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
4.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
22.1
P / E (ttm)
9.6%
ROE
$2.9B
Market cap
8.5%
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.
Knife River Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+35.1%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +35.1% 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. The build is led by PP&E up +41% against revenue +9% and inventory up +15% against +10% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 5% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 35.1%. 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.
6.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 11% — slightly below the ~8% cost of capital we hold this sector to — reinvestment to date is roughly a wash. The capital base behind it grew +57% across FY2023–FY2025, from $2.0B to $3.2B, while the return fell 4.3 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 11% the older base was already earning.
+0.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed 0% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.15B
Revenue Growth YoY+8.5%
Net Margin5.0%
Free Cash Flow-$69.6M
Return on Equity9.6%
Debt / Equity0.71x
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 Knife River Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?