Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 24, 2026
Waystar Holding Corp. (WAY)
A forensic read on Waystar Holding 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
3.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
36.5
P / E (ttm)
2.9%
ROE
$4.7B
Market cap
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 (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.
Waystar Holding Corp. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+24.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +24.6% 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 receivables up +22% against revenue +17%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 24.6%. 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.
2.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.9% in the latest fiscal year, close to the 2% of FY2024 — below the ~10% cost of capital we hold this sector to. If that gap persists through the cycle, incremental reinvestment reduces rather than creates value per share. The capital base behind it grew +30% across FY2024–FY2025, from $4.3B to $5.5B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 2% the older base was already earning.
+23.3%/yr
FY2024–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +23% over the last 1 year to FY2025 (+23.3%/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 ~23.3% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~19%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.10B
Revenue Growth YoY+16.5%
Net Margin10.2%
Free Cash Flow$283.2M
Return on Equity2.9%
Debt / Equity0.38x
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 Waystar Holding Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 24, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
stopped
FY2024→FY2025
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $844,000 of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
4% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 4% of revenue and 15% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.23 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 23.3% a year, 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.