Forensic Analysis · Restaurants · as of Nov 9, 2026
Kura Sushi USA, Inc. (KRUS)
A forensic read on Kura Sushi USA, 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
0.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-2.0%
ROE
16.1%
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.
Kura Sushi USA, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1.4%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1.4% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -3.7%. After-tax operating profit was ($9M) in FY2024 and ($5M) in FY2026, with operating income at -4.8% of revenue in FY2024, -1.7% in FY2025 and -2.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +53% across FY2024–FY2026, from $243M to $373M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -3.7% the older base was already earning.
+10.3%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +10.3% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by PP&E up +23% against revenue +16% and inventory up +23% against +16% in revenue. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 19% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 10.3%. 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.
+4.1%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +8% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+4.1%/yr). The count is growing — 11.2M shares in FY2024, 12.1M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.1% 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 ~8%.
1.5% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.5% of revenue in FY2026 — about $0.40 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 4.1% 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$328.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+16.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+17.5%
Net Margin-1.4%
Free Cash Flow-$25.1M
Return on Equity-2.0%
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 Kura Sushi USA, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?