Lincoln Educational Services Corp (LINC) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 25, 2026
Lincoln Educational Services Corp (LINC)
A forensic read on Lincoln Educational Services Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
35.3
P / E (ttm)
10.0%
ROE
$764M
Market cap
17.8%
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.
Lincoln Educational Services Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+36.0%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +36.0% 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 +66% against revenue +18% and inventory up +31% against +13% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 27% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 36.0%. 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.
6.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.4% in the latest fiscal year, against 12.4% in FY2023, having run between 3.6% and 12.4% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $24M in FY2023 and $23M in FY2025, with operating income at 8.8% of revenue in FY2023, 3.4% in FY2024 and 5.8% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +86% across FY2023–FY2025, from $196M to $364M, while the return fell 6.0 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 12.4% the older base was already earning.
+1.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +2% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.2%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.2% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~2%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$518.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+17.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+17.1%
Net Margin3.9%
Free Cash Flow-$27.3M
Return on Equity10.0%
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 Lincoln Educational Services Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 25, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
stopped
FY2023→FY2024
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $891,000 of buybacks + dividends in FY2023, but ~$0 in FY2024. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
$4M
FY2023–FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $4M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($4M)) — about 15% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.