Forensic Analysis · Educational Services · as of Nov 9, 2026
Universal Technical Institute Inc (UTI)
A forensic read on Universal Technical Institute 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.9
Distress distance
3
Forensic signals
21.4%
ROE
14.0%
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 (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.
Universal Technical Institute Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.9, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+24.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +24.9% 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 sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by receivables up +48% against revenue +14%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 13% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 24.9%. 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.
+27.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +61% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+27.0%/yr). The count is growing — 34.5M shares in FY2023, 55.6M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~27.0% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~38%.
1.1% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.1% of revenue and 17% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.16 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 27.0% 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$835.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+14.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+17.3%
Net Margin7.5%
Free Cash Flow$55.4M
Return on Equity21.4%
Debt / Equity0.27x
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