Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRCA) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Oct 13, 2026
Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRCA)
A forensic read on Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-19.4
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-72.3%
ROE
370.2%
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 (red flags, 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.
Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -19.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1759.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1759.8% in the latest fiscal year.
54d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 2 to 54 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +10858% vs revenue +370%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 303 → 2 → 54 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.
9% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 9% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.31 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 105.6% a year across FY2024–FY2025, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. 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$35.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+370.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+163.5%
Net Margin-50.3%
Free Cash Flow-$17.6M
Return on Equity-72.3%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?