Forensic Analysis · Homebuilders & Residential Construction · as of Nov 8, 2026
Smith Douglas Homes Corp. (SDHC)
A forensic read on Smith Douglas Homes 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
4
Forensic signals
13.3%
ROE
-0.4%
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.
Smith Douglas Homes Corp. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
0.43×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.43× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. 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.
+21.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +21.7% 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. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 10% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 21.7%. 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.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.
FCF ($37M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $28M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($37M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, and operating cash flow itself was negative or zero that year too. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
-49%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~49% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$971.1M
Revenue Growth YoY-0.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+12.7%
Net Margin1.1%
Free Cash Flow-$36.9M
Return on Equity13.3%
Debt / Equity0.51x
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 Smith Douglas Homes Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?