Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 25, 2026
Yext, Inc. (YEXT)
A forensic read on Yext, 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
-1.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
23.3
P / E (ttm)
23.8%
ROE
$637M
Market cap
6.1%
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, 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.
Yext, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -1.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+109.8%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +109.8% relative to their own average in FY2026 — 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. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 27% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 109.8%. 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.
+2.3%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+2.3%/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 ~2.3% 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 ~5%.
11% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 11% of revenue and 91% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.37 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 2.3% 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$446.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+6.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+5.1%
Net Margin8.5%
Free Cash Flow$53.3M
Return on Equity23.8%
Debt / Equity0.61x
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 Yext, 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.
127% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $67M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 127% of free cash flow. That is $14M (27%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. New debt covered it: total debt rose $98M over FY2026, while cash rose $31M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $49M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 218%.
Yext, Inc. (YEXT) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy