Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Aug 13, 2026

Stem, Inc. (STEM)

A forensic read on Stem, 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

-17.6

Distress distance

Watch

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

8.1%

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.

Stem, Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -17.6, 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). 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

-33.5%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is -33.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from -10% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, and it has been across FY2020–FY2025, so reinvested dollars have not been earning their keep.

n/m (stock split)

FY2022–FY2025

Share count (stock split). Diluted share count changed -94% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2023 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 -61.9%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.

7% of rev

FY2025

Stock-based comp load. Stock-based compensation ran 7% of revenue and 149% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $1.20 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 18.1% a year, 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.

$547M

FY2024–FY2024

Goodwill impairments. Took $547M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($547M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$156.3M

Revenue Growth YoY+8.1%

Net Margin88.2%

Free Cash Flow$6.9M

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 13, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.