Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 25, 2026
Grand Canyon Education, Inc. (LOPE)
A forensic read on Grand Canyon Education, Inc. 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
25.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
17.6
P / E (ttm)
28.9%
ROE
$3.9B
Market cap
7.1%
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 (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.
Grand Canyon Education, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 25.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+32.2%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +32.2% 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 payables paid down 9% against +7% in revenue. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 10% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 32.2%. 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.
111% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $265M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 111% of free cash flow. That is $26M (11%) more than free cash flow covered. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash and short-term investments fell $25M over FY2025. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $14M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 117%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.11B
Revenue Growth YoY+7.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.3%
Net Margin19.5%
Free Cash Flow$238.6M
Return on Equity28.9%
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 Grand Canyon Education, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?