Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
Tucows Inc /Pa/ (TCX)
A forensic read on Tucows Inc /Pa/ 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
-2.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
7.7%
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.
Tucows Inc /Pa/ earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -2.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-4.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -4.3% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -10.0%. After-tax operating profit was ($50M) in FY2023 and ($19M) in FY2025, with operating income at -18.8% of revenue in FY2023, -17.9% in FY2024 and -6.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -15% across FY2023–FY2025, from $504M to $428M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2025's operating profit carried a $12M asset write-down that alone took about 2.1 points off that year's return, so the latest return is depressed by that charge. FY2024's operating profit carried a $19M asset write-down and a $11M restructuring charge that alone took about 4.7 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. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
n/m (sign flip)
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets flipped from positive to negative FY2024→FY2025 (FY2024 $+43.2M to FY2025 $-20.6M) — the standard accruals ratio divides by the average of the two, which collapses toward zero right as the sign changes, so the resulting percentage is a denominator artifact, not a real accrual measurement. Treat this as a structural balance-sheet shift to understand on its own terms rather than a clean or dirty accruals read.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$390.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+7.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.2%
Net Margin-19.4%
Free Cash Flow-$22.9M
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 Tucows Inc /Pa/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?