Forensic Analysis · Consulting & Engineering Services · as of Nov 9, 2026
Vse Corp (VSEC)
A forensic read on Vse Corp 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
Safe
Financial health
5.6
Distress distance
5
Forensic signals
1.0%
ROE
41.5%
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.
Vse Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
-0.39×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was -0.39× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
4.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.4% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.8-point range. After-tax operating profit was $38M in FY2023 and $69M in FY2025, with operating income at 9.2% of revenue in FY2023, 7.5% in FY2024 and 8.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +47% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.1B to $1.6B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 3.6% the older base was already earning.
+22.4%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +50% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+22.4%/yr). The count is growing — 14.2M shares in FY2023, 21.2M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~22.4% 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 ~33%.
1.2% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.2% of revenue and 225% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.60 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 22.4% 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.
145% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $8M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 145% of free cash flow, but 31% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash. Counting the $13M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 370%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.11B
Revenue Growth YoY+41.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+43.0%
Net Margin1.1%
Free Cash Flow$5.7M
Return on Equity1.0%
Debt / Equity0.20x
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 Vse Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?