Forensic Analysis · Industrial & Scientific Instruments · as of Nov 9, 2026
Pacific Biosciences Of California, Inc. (PACB)
A forensic read on Pacific Biosciences Of California, 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
-13.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-213.5%
ROE
3.9%
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.
Pacific Biosciences Of California, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -13.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-49.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -49.0% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from -18.0%. After-tax operating profit was ($264M) in FY2023 and ($438M) in FY2025, with operating income at -166.8% of revenue in FY2023, -308.0% in FY2024 and -346.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: short-term debt and long-term debt are tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged. $275M of the $893M base at FY2025 is short-term investments (30.8%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows. FY2024's operating profit carried a $144M goodwill write-off and a $13M restructuring charge that alone took about 9.5 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+8.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +18% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+8.8%/yr). The count is growing — 253.6M shares in FY2023, 300.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~8.8% 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 ~15%.
n/m (sign flip)
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets flipped from positive to negative FY2024→FY2025 (FY2024 $+451.2M to FY2025 $-58.4M) — the standard accruals ratio divides by the average of the two, which collapses toward zero right as the sign changes, so the resulting percentage is a denominator artifact, not a real accrual measurement. Treat this as a structural balance-sheet shift to understand on its own terms rather than a clean or dirty accruals read.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.
81d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 65 to 81 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +29% vs revenue +4%). Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 67 → 65 → 81 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Receivables grew, but deferred revenue grew +15% over the same period too — rising alongside rising unearned revenue reads as upfront billing on multi-period contracts, not slipping collections. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
26% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 26% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.14 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 8.8% a year across FY2023–FY2025, 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.
$144M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $144M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($144M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$160.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+3.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-10.7%
Net Margin-341.5%
Free Cash Flow-$113.9M
Return on Equity-213.5%
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 Pacific Biosciences Of California, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?