Forensic Analysis · Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology · as of Nov 9, 2026
Vericel Corp (VCEL)
A forensic read on Vericel Corp 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
3.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
5.1%
ROE
16.5%
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.
Vericel Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -2.1%. After-tax operating profit was ($5M) in FY2023 and $10M in FY2025, with operating income at -3.3% of revenue in FY2023, 1.9% in FY2024 and 4.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +35% across FY2023–FY2025, from $239M to $323M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -2.1% the older base was already earning. $90M of the $323M base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (27.9%) — 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.
+15.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +15.7% 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 receivables up +38% against revenue +16% and payables paid down 34% against +9% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 15% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 15.7%. 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.
+4.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +10% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+4.7%/yr). The count is growing — 47.6M shares in FY2023, 52.2M in FY2025: 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~9%.
14% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 14% of revenue and 157% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.74 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 4.7% 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$276.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+16.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+18.3%
Net Margin6.0%
Free Cash Flow$24.7M
Return on Equity5.1%
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 Vericel Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?