Forensic Analysis · OEM & Vehicle Bodies · as of Nov 8, 2026
Tesla, Inc. (TSLA)
A forensic read on Tesla, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
4.9%
ROE
-2.9%
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.
Tesla, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 12.6%. After-tax operating profit was $8.0B in FY2023 and $3.2B in FY2025, with operating income at 9.2% of revenue in FY2023, 7.2% in FY2024 and 4.6% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +34% across FY2023–FY2025, from $63.4B to $85.3B, while the return fell 8.9 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 12.6% the older base was already earning. $24.0B of the $85.3B base at FY2025 is short-term investments (28.1%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so this rate understates what the operating capital earns.
+13.0%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.0% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by PP&E up +13% against revenue -3%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 16% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 13.0%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.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$94.83B
Revenue Growth YoY-2.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.0%
Net Margin4.0%
Free Cash Flow$6.22B
Return on Equity4.9%
Debt / Equity0.10x
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 Tesla, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?