Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. — Earnings Quality Grade F
AQST · Healthcare
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Management Signals
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO surged by 34 days (31 → 66)
Small-cap context: DSO swings on a small revenue base are more often quarterly customer-mix effects than red flags.
AR growth 62.9% exceeds revenue growth -22.6%
Revenue -22.6%, CFFO -46.6%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
Inventory 2.1% vs COGS 3.8%. Normal
CapEx growth 253.5% is >2x revenue growth -22.6%
SG&A/Gross Profit = 307.2%, exceeds 70%
Gross margin swung -10.6pp (69.0% → 58.3%)
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO < Net Income for 3 consecutive years
Small-cap context: Small-cap CFFO/NI often diverges from working-capital swings, not necessarily manipulation.
FCF is negative ($-0.1B)
Accruals ratio = -19.5%. Low accruals
Cash $0.1B covers debt $0.0B
Balance Sheet Health
No goodwill. Clean balance sheet
Interest coverage = -4.2x (<2x). Financial stress
Other assets -47.5% vs revenue -22.6%. Normal
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions negative for 3 years
Small-cap context: A single acquisition on a small balance sheet can trip serial-acquirer logic.
No goodwill
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -2.86 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Portfolio monitoring
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Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-25