Forensic Analysis · Energy / Oil & Gas · as of Sep 25, 2026
Patterson Uti Energy Inc (PTEN)
A forensic read on Patterson Uti Energy 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-51.1
P / E (ttm)
-2.9%
ROE
$4.2B
Market cap
2.67%
Dividend yield
-10.3%
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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.
Patterson Uti Energy Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.8, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.8% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.6% in FY2023, having run between -14.8% and 4.6% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $282M in FY2023 and ($32M) in FY2025, with operating income at 8.5% of revenue in FY2023, -16.5% in FY2024 and -0.8% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -31% across FY2023–FY2025, from $6.2B to $4.3B, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work. FY2024's operating profit carried a $885M goodwill write-off and a $114M asset write-down that alone took about 16.6 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.
+17.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +37% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+17.0%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~17.0% 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 ~27%.
0.8% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.8% of revenue and 11% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.10 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 19.2% a year, 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.
$885M
FY2024–FY2024
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.83B
Revenue Growth YoY-10.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.9%
Net Margin-1.9%
Free Cash Flow$372.2M
Return on Equity-2.9%
Debt / Equity0.38x
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 Patterson Uti Energy Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 25, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Patterson Uti Energy Inc (PTEN) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Goodwill impairments.Took $885M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($885M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-11%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~11% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.