Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 25, 2026
Willdan Group, Inc. (WLDN)
A forensic read on Willdan Group, 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
7.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
21.6
P / E (ttm)
17.2%
ROE
$1.2B
Market cap
20.5%
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.
Willdan Group, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 7.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+5.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +11% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+5.2%/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 ~5.2% 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 ~10%.
1.7% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.7% of revenue and 17% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.78 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 5.2% a year 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.
+14.0%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +14.0% 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 faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 10% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 14.0%. 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.
12.5%
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$681.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+20.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+15.5%
Net Margin7.7%
Free Cash Flow$70.7M
Return on Equity17.2%
Debt / Equity0.16x
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 Willdan Group, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 25, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
Willdan Group, Inc. (WLDN) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 12.5% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from 5.8%. After-tax operating profit was $17M in FY2023 and $40M in FY2025, with operating income at 4.3% of revenue in FY2023, 5.5% in FY2024 and 6.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +12% across FY2023–FY2025, from $286M to $319M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 5.8% the older base was already earning.