Forensic Analysis · Industrial & Scientific Instruments · as of Nov 9, 2026
Transcat Inc (TRNS)
A forensic read on Transcat Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
1.8%
ROE
19.2%
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.
Transcat Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.3%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2024–FY2026 from 6.2%. After-tax operating profit was $15M in FY2024 and $9M in FY2026, with operating income at 7.6% of revenue in FY2024, 6.4% in FY2025 and 4.0% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +66% across FY2024–FY2026, from $237M to $394M, while the return fell 3.9 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 6.2% the older base was already earning.
+6.0%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +12% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+6.0%/yr). The count is growing — 8.4M shares in FY2024, 9.4M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~6.0% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~11%.
2% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 2% of revenue and 39% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.80 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 6.0% a year across FY2024–FY2026, 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$331.9M
Revenue Growth YoY+19.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+13.1%
Net Margin1.6%
Free Cash Flow$19.6M
Return on Equity1.8%
Debt / Equity0.33x
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 Transcat Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?