Forensic Analysis · Educational Services · as of Nov 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.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
8.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
21.7%
ROE
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 (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.
Stride, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 8.8, 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
+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 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 receivables up +19% against revenue +5%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 8% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 15.1%. 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.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.
+4.3%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +9% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+4.3%/yr). The count is growing — 43.5M shares in FY2024, 47.3M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.3% 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%.
1.6% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.6% of revenue and 11% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.85 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 4.3% 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$2.52B
Revenue Growth YoY+4.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+11.1%
Net Margin13.4%
Free Cash Flow$371.6M
Return on Equity21.7%
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?