Forensic Analysis · Aerospace & Defense · as of Nov 9, 2026
Park Aerospace Corp (PKE)
A forensic read on Park Aerospace 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
Safe
Financial health
15.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
9.5%
ROE
18.2%
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.
Park Aerospace Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 15.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.
What the filings flag
128% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $12M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 128% of free cash flow. That is $3M (28%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. Over FY2026 cash and short-term investments rose $21M, so that line did not fund the gap. The FY2026 cash-flow statement filed $22M from shares issued; $2M of investments purchased; net cash provided by investing activities of $35M; net cash provided by financing activities of $11M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $401,000 of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 132%.
0.84×
FY2024–FY2026
Cash conversion.Over FY2024–FY2026, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.84× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. 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.
13.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 13.6% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from 5.7%. After-tax operating profit was $7M in FY2024 and $10M in FY2026, with operating income at 15.0% of revenue in FY2024, 15.1% in FY2025 and 18.4% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -36% across FY2024–FY2026, from $116M to $75M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $29M of the $75M base at FY2026 is short-term investments (39.0%) — 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$73.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+18.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+14.4%
Net Margin15.4%
Free Cash Flow$9.5M
Return on Equity9.5%
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 Park Aerospace Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?