Forensic Analysis · Educational Services · as of Nov 8, 2026

Strategic Education, Inc. (STRA)

A forensic read on Strategic Education, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

B · Sound & dependable

Forensic grade

Safe

Financial health

5.6

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

7.7%

ROE

4.0%

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.

Strategic Education, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.

What the filings flag

128% of FCF

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $196M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 128% of free cash flow. That is $42M (28%) more than free cash flow covered. The balance sheet's own liquid holdings covered it: cash, short-term investments and long-term marketable securities fell $46M over FY2025; total debt is not on file on the same basis at both year ends, so whether new borrowing also covered part of it cannot be read. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $23M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 143%.

7.4%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 7.4% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 3.8%. After-tax operating profit was $66M in FY2023 and $124M in FY2025, with operating income at 8.4% of revenue in FY2023, 12.8% in FY2024 and 13.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: long-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$1.27B

Revenue Growth YoY+4.0%

Revenue CAGR (2yr)+5.8%

Net Margin10.0%

Free Cash Flow$153.9M

Return on Equity7.7%

Debt / Equity0.00x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 8, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

See a wrong number? Report an error with the filing it should match.