Forensic Analysis · Oilfield Services · as of Nov 8, 2026
Select Water Solutions, Inc. (WTTR)
A forensic read on Select Water Solutions, Inc. 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
2.7%
ROE
-3.1%
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 (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.
Select Water Solutions, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.5, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+21.0%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +21.0% 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 — 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. Net operating assets also rose $12.8M 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 +26% against revenue -3%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 18% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 21.0%. 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.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
2.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.1% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 5.8%. After-tax operating profit was $55M in FY2023 and $26M in FY2025, with operating income at 3.9% of revenue in FY2023, 3.8% in FY2024 and 2.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: short-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged.
FCF ($80M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $41M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($80M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $215M — 19% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $121M past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. The balance sheet's own liquid holdings covered part of it: cash fell $2M over FY2025 — $2M of the $121M; total debt is not on file on the same basis at both year ends, so whether new borrowing also covered part of it cannot be read. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $250M of debt issued; $15M from sales of property and equipment; net cash used in investing activities of $405M; net cash provided by financing activities of $188M.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.41B
Revenue Growth YoY-3.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-5.8%
Net Margin1.5%
Free Cash Flow-$79.9M
Return on Equity2.7%
Debt / Equity0.39x
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 Select Water Solutions, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?