Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 10, 2026
Telos Corp (TLS)
A forensic read on Telos Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-5.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-32.8%
ROE
52.2%
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.
Telos Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -5.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-47.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -47.9% in the latest fiscal year, against -45.3% in FY2023, having run between -58.2% and -45.3% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($32M) in FY2023 and ($32M) in FY2025, with operating income at -27.7% of revenue in FY2023, -51.6% in FY2024 and -24.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $70M in FY2023 to $66M in FY2025 (-6%), while the revenue it carried went from $145M to $165M. FY2025's operating profit carried a $15M goodwill write-off and a $2M restructuring charge that alone took about 19.7 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 2.6-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. FY2024's operating profit carried a $12M asset write-down and a $1M restructuring charge that alone took about 13.5 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.
+2.6%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.6%/yr). The count is growing — 69.3M shares in FY2023, 72.9M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.6% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~5%.
18% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 18% of revenue and 142% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.41 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 2.6% a year across FY2023–FY2025, 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.
$15M
FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $15M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($15M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$164.8M
Revenue Growth YoY+52.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+6.5%
Net Margin-22.2%
Free Cash Flow$21.3M
Return on Equity-32.8%
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 Telos Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?