Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Aug 9, 2026
Stride, Inc. (LRN)
A forensic read on Stride, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
11.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
11.0
P / E (ttm)
20.7%
ROE
$3.4B
Market cap
4.7%
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). 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.
Stride, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 11.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+3.5%/yr
FY2023–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +11% over the last 3 years to FY2026 (+3.5%/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 ~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 FY2023 has been diluted ~10%.
+15.1%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +15.1% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). 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 receivables up +19% against revenue +5%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 8% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
1.6% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.6% of revenue and 9% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.85 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count, and there it has run at about 3.6% a year and is falling.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.52B
Revenue Growth YoY+4.7%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+11.1%
Net Margin13.4%
Free Cash Flow$433.2M
Return on Equity20.7%
Debt / Equity0.26x
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 Stride, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?