Forensic Analysis · Automotive / Vehicle Manufacturing · as of Oct 14, 2026
Workhorse Group Inc. (WKHS)
A forensic read on Workhorse Group 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
-9.8
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-148.9%
ROE
201.1%
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.
Workhorse Group Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -9.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-46.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -46.0% in the latest fiscal year, against -59.9% in FY2023, having run between -146.9% and -46.0% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($83M) in FY2023 and ($37M) in FY2025, with operating income at -804.1% of revenue in FY2023, -586.7% in FY2024 and -223.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -41% across FY2023–FY2025, from $139M to $82M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on.
+238.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +1043% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+238.0%/yr). The count is growing — 0.8M shares in FY2023, 9.5M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~238.0% 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 ~91%.
+47.0%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +47.0% 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, and much of it is accounted for. Net operating assets also rose $9.0M through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. The build is led by PP&E up +960% against revenue +201% and inventory up +83% against +133% in cost of sales. That build tracks a +201% revenue year: net operating assets grew +75% and receivables +8%, so the balance sheet is carrying more volume rather than getting heavier per dollar of sales — the accrual build is funding demand the company is shipping, not earnings running ahead of collection. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 86% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 47.0%. 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.
3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.07 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 238.0% 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$21.2M
Revenue Growth YoY+201.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+27.3%
Net Margin-302.1%
Free Cash Flow-$36.2M
Return on Equity-148.9%
Debt / Equity0.36x
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 Workhorse Group Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?