Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Oct 25, 2026
Skillsoft Corp. (SKIL)
A forensic read on Skillsoft Corp. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-6.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
-3.5%
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). 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.
Skillsoft Corp. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -6.3, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-12.5%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -12.5% in the latest fiscal year, against -33.4% in FY2024, having run between -33.4% and -8.1% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($244M) in FY2024 and ($71M) in FY2026, with operating income at -55.8% of revenue in FY2024, -13.1% in FY2025 and -17.5% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -23% across FY2024–FY2026, from $731M to $565M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2024's operating profit carried a $142M goodwill write-off and a $14M restructuring charge that took about 16.8 points off that year's return, and FY2026's carried a $21M goodwill write-off and a $17M restructuring charge that took about 5.3 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 11.5 points to the +20.9-point change across FY2024–FY2026.
stopped
FY2024→FY2026
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $8M of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2026. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
+3.3%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Basic share count changed +7% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+3.3%/yr). The count is growing — 8.1M shares in FY2024, 8.6M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.3% 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 204% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $1.54 per basic share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the basic count still rose about 3.3% a year across FY2024–FY2026 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.
$163M
FY2024–FY2026
Goodwill impairments.Took $163M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($142M), FY2026 ($21M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$512.7M
Revenue Growth YoY-3.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-3.7%
Net Margin-27.3%
Free Cash Flow$6.5M
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 Skillsoft Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?