Forensic Analysis · Upstream Exploration & Production · as of Nov 9, 2026
Vitesse Energy, Inc. (VTS)
A forensic read on Vitesse Energy, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
4.5%
ROE
13.2%
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 (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.
Vitesse Energy, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
1.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 1.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 3.2%. After-tax operating profit was $23M in FY2023 and $12M in FY2025, with operating income at 14.9% of revenue in FY2023, 16.9% in FY2024 and 6.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $705M in FY2023 to $774M in FY2025 (+10%), while the revenue it carried went from $234M to $274M.
+15.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +34% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+15.7%/yr). The count is growing — 29.6M shares in FY2023, 39.6M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~15.7% 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 ~25%.
4% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 4% of revenue and 6% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.26 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 15.7% a year across FY2023–FY2025 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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$274.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+13.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.2%
Net Margin9.2%
Free Cash Flow$170.3M
Return on Equity4.5%
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 Vitesse Energy, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?