Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Nov 9, 2026
Quinstreet, Inc (QNST)
A forensic read on Quinstreet, Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
28.6%
ROE
18.3%
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.
Quinstreet, Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.5, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
12.8%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.8% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -11.6%. After-tax operating profit was ($22M) in FY2024 and $32M in FY2026, with operating income at -4.6% of revenue in FY2024, 0.6% in FY2025 and 2.7% in FY2026. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2024–FY2026: long-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.
+2.9%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +6% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+2.9%/yr). The count is growing — 54.9M shares in FY2024, 58.2M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.9% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~6%.
3% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue and 32% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.64 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 2.9% a year across FY2024–FY2026, 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.29B
Revenue Growth YoY+18.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+45.2%
Net Margin6.3%
Free Cash Flow$117.0M
Return on Equity28.6%
Debt / Equity0.22x
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 Quinstreet, Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?