Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 10, 2026
PagerDuty, Inc. (PD)
A forensic read on PagerDuty, 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
1.1
Distress distance
3
Forensic signals
90.4%
ROE
5.4%
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.
PagerDuty, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.1, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+45.3%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +45.3% 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 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 8% against -7% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 16% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 45.3%. 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.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.
1.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 1.6% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -27.1%. After-tax operating profit was ($76M) in FY2024 and $5M in FY2026, with operating income at -22.3% of revenue in FY2024, -12.8% in FY2025 and 1.2% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +18% across FY2024–FY2026, from $281M to $330M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -27.1% the older base was already earning. $228M of the $330M base at FY2026 is short-term investments (69.1%) — 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 this rate understates what the operating capital earns.
131% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $135M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 131% of free cash flow. That is $32M (31%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash and short-term investments fell $101M over FY2026, while total debt fell $64M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $98M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 227%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$492.5M
Revenue Growth YoY+5.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+6.9%
Net Margin35.2%
Free Cash Flow$102.7M
Return on Equity90.4%
Debt / Equity1.66x
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 PagerDuty, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?