Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026
Talen Energy Corp (TLN)
A forensic read on Talen Energy Corp 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-86.6
P / E (ttm)
-20.0%
ROE
$16.5B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
22.0%
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 (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.
Talen Energy Corp earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.7, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+55.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +55.9% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by receivables up +142% against revenue +22% and PP&E up +139% against revenue +22%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 16% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
16d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 10 to 16 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +142% vs revenue +22%). Receivables are outrunning sales — a flag for aggressive revenue recognition or slipping collections.
-0.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.8% in the latest fiscal year and steady — well below its ~6% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
n/m (stock split)
FY2015–FY2025
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed -58% over the last 10 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2022 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 -8.4%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.58B
Revenue Growth YoY+22.0%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-5.8%
Net Margin-8.5%
Free Cash Flow$606.0M
Return on Equity-20.0%
Debt / Equity6.23x
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 Talen Energy Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?