Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Sep 25, 2026
Sonos Inc (SONO)
A forensic read on Sonos 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
Safe
Financial health
4.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
32.3
P / E (ttm)
-17.2%
ROE
$2.0B
Market cap
-4.9%
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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.
Sonos Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-13.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -13.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from -3.1%. After-tax operating profit was ($13M) in FY2023 and ($40M) in FY2025, with operating income at -1.2% of revenue in FY2023, -3.2% in FY2024 and -3.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -31% across FY2023–FY2025, from $428M to $296M, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work. FY2025's operating profit carried a $22M restructuring charge that alone took about 5.8 points off that year's return, so about 5.8 of the 10.4-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. FY2024's operating profit carried a $9M restructuring charge that alone took about 1.9 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
17d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 11 to 17 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +48% vs revenue -5%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 15 → 11 → 17 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Deferred revenue was roughly flat (-2%) over the same period, which doesn't corroborate a benign upfront-billing explanation for the receivables build. Measured against the same quarter twelve months earlier — like-for-like on the calendar, so an ordinary seasonal build cannot produce it — receivables took longer to collect in 4 consecutive quarters (Sep 2025 +5, Dec 2025 +5, Mar 2026 +17, Jun 2026 +4 days). In the latest of them the receivable balance grew +24% against sales +9%, so more of a quarter's billings were still outstanding at the period end than a year earlier — money the company has recognized and not yet been paid. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.44B
Revenue Growth YoY-4.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-6.6%
Net Margin-4.2%
Free Cash Flow$108.2M
Return on Equity-17.2%
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 Sonos Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?