Forensic Analysis · Aerospace & Defense · as of Nov 9, 2026
Rocket Lab Corp (RKLB)
A forensic read on Rocket Lab Corp 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
Safe
Financial health
3.8
Distress distance
4
Forensic signals
-18.8%
ROE
38.0%
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.
Rocket Lab Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.8, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+80.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +80.3% 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 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. Net operating assets also rose $300.8M through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by PP&E up +64% against revenue +38% and inventory up +33% against +23% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 6% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 80.3%. 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. 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.
-20.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -20.7% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -24.5%. After-tax operating profit was ($141M) in FY2023 and ($181M) in FY2025, with operating income at -72.7% of revenue in FY2023, -43.5% in FY2024 and -38.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +52% across FY2023–FY2025, from $573M to $874M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -24.5% the older base was already earning. $239M of the $874M base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (27.4%) — 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 the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows.
+5.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +10% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+5.0%/yr). The count is growing — 481.8M shares in FY2023, 530.7M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~5.0% 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 ~9%.
12% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 12% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.13 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 5.0% a year across FY2023–FY2025 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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$601.8M
Revenue Growth YoY+38.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+56.9%
Net Margin-32.9%
Free Cash Flow-$321.8M
Return on Equity-18.8%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 Rocket Lab Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?