Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 4, 2026
System1, Inc. (SST)
A forensic read on System1, Inc. 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
-7.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-214.5%
ROE
-22.6%
Revenue growth
The financial-health reading above compares this company's equity at BOOK value, not at what the market currently pays for it — this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data. Treat it as a rough read, not the final word.
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). 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.
System1, Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -7.7, placing it in the Distress zone (based on book value, not market value, since this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data — treat this zone as a rough read, not the final word). 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-24.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -24.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -38% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, and it has been across FY2022–FY2025, so reinvested dollars have not been earning their keep.
4% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 4% of revenue in FY2025 — about $1.44 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 7.7% a year 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.
FCF ($4M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $589,000 to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($4M) 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.
82d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 63 to 82 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables -9% vs revenue -23%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2022–FY2025 the day count ran 51 → 62 → 63 → 82 days — the latest step continues a climb that was already under way, which is the persistence that separates a collection problem from a busy quarter. 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 7 consecutive quarters (Dec 2024 +23, Mar 2025 +18, Jun 2025 +22, Sep 2025 +22, Dec 2025 +25, Mar 2026 +54, Jun 2026 +42 days). In the latest of them the receivable balance grew -42% against sales -61%, 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$266.1M
Revenue Growth YoY-22.6%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-24.2%
Net Margin-24.6%
Free Cash Flow-$4.2M
Return on Equity-214.5%
Debt / Equity8.48x
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 System1, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 4, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
System1, Inc. (SST) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
n/m (stock split)
FY2022–FY2025
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed -91% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2024 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw -55.5%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
$373M
FY2022–FY2022
Goodwill impairments.Took $373M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2022 ($373M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.