Forensic Analysis · Consumer Staples / Food & Beverage · as of Sep 25, 2026
Vital Farms, Inc. (VITL)
A forensic read on Vital Farms, 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
6.6
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
3115.3
P / E (ttm)
18.9%
ROE
$443M
Market cap
25.3%
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
Vital Farms, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 6.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+87.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +87.3% 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 inventory up +181% against +26% in cost of sales and PP&E up +90% against revenue +25%. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 15% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 87.3%. 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.
+3.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +6% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+3.1%/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 ~3.1% 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 ~6%.
35d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 27 to 35 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +181% vs +26% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
1.6% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.6% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.27 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 3.1% a year, 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$759.4M
Revenue Growth YoY+25.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+27.0%
Net Margin8.7%
Free Cash Flow-$48.2M
Return on Equity18.9%
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 Vital Farms, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?