Forensic Analysis · Water Utilities · as of Nov 10, 2026
Pure Cycle Corp (PCYO)
A forensic read on Pure Cycle 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
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
9.6%
ROE
-9.3%
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.
Pure Cycle Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
0.45×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.45× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
+10.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +10.8% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 0% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 10.8%. 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.
4.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.7% in the latest fiscal year, against 1.6% in FY2023, having run between 1.6% and 8.4% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $2M in FY2023 and $6M in FY2025, with operating income at 14.2% of revenue in FY2023, 42.6% in FY2024 and 29.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: short-term debt is 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$26.1M
Revenue Growth YoY-9.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+33.7%
Net Margin50.3%
Free Cash Flow$12.3M
Return on Equity9.6%
Debt / Equity0.05x
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 Pure Cycle Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?