Forensic Analysis · Water Utilities · as of Nov 11, 2026
York Water Co (YORW)
A forensic read on York Water Co 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
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
8.5%
ROE
3.4%
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.
York Water Co earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.9% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.7-point range. After-tax operating profit was $27M in FY2023 and $25M in FY2025, with operating income at 41.6% of revenue in FY2023, 37.4% in FY2024 and 35.8% 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 ($19M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $13M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($19M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $30M — 42% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $31M 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. New debt covered part of it: total debt rose $17M over FY2025, with cash flat — $17M of the $31M. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $57M of debt issued against $40M repaid; $2M from shares issued; net cash used in investing activities of $49M; net cash provided by financing activities of $19M.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$77.5M
Revenue Growth YoY+3.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+4.4%
Net Margin25.9%
Free Cash Flow-$18.9M
Return on Equity8.5%
Debt / Equity0.92x
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 York Water Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?