Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Aug 11, 2026
Starling Oncology, Inc. (TOI)
A forensic read on Starling Oncology, Inc. 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
-2.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
$513M
Market cap
27.8%
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.
Starling Oncology, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -2.2, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-30.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -30.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from -28% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+4.7%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +15% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+4.7%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.7% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~13%.
0.9% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.9% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.05 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 5.5% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
stopped
FY2023→FY2024
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $1M of buybacks + dividends in FY2023, but ~$0 in FY2024. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
$27M
FY2022–FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $27M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2022 ($10M), FY2023 ($17M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$502.7M
Revenue Growth YoY+27.8%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+25.8%
Net Margin-12.1%
Free Cash Flow-$27.8M
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 Starling Oncology, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?