Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
SentinelOne, Inc. (S)
A forensic read on SentinelOne, 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
-1.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-29.0%
ROE
21.9%
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.
SentinelOne, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -1.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-16.3%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -16.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -20.3%. After-tax operating profit was ($299M) in FY2024 and ($254M) in FY2026, with operating income at -60.9% of revenue in FY2024, -40.1% in FY2025 and -32.1% in FY2026. The capital base behind it went from $1.5B in FY2024 to $1.6B in FY2026 (+6%), while the revenue it carried went from $621M to $1.0B. Across FY2025–FY2026, $575M went into capital expenditure, purchases of intangible assets, acquisitions and equity-method investments against $37M of depreciation excluding $60M of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference. $748M of the $1.6B base at FY2026 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (47.9%) — 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.
+5.8%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +12% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+5.8%/yr). The count is growing — 294.9M shares in FY2024, 330.1M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~5.8% 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 ~11%.
385% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $200M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 385% of free cash flow. That is $148M (285%) 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, short-term investments and long-term marketable securities fell $385M over FY2026. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $298M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 959%.
30% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 30% of revenue and 573% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.90 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 5.8% 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$1.00B
Revenue Growth YoY+21.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+27.0%
Net Margin-45.0%
Free Cash Flow$51.9M
Return on Equity-29.0%
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 SentinelOne, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?