Ouster, Inc. — Earnings Quality Grade F
OUST · Technology
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Management Signals
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 60 days, change +1 days YoY
AR growth 54.7% vs revenue growth 52.5%
Revenue grew 52.5% but CFFO declined -18.6%
Small-cap context: Small-cap revenue/CFFO ratio is sensitive to growth-stage working-capital draws.
Expense Quality
Inventory growth 43.5% far exceeds COGS 21.7%, margin rising. Fraud signal
Small-cap context: Inventory ratios on a small base are noisy; a single product launch can move them sharply.
CapEx growth 562.8% is >2x revenue growth 52.5%
SG&A/Gross Profit = 110.6%, exceeds 70%
Gross margin swung +12.8pp (36.4% → 49.3%)
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO < Net Income for 3 consecutive years
Small-cap context: Small-cap CFFO/NI often diverges from working-capital swings, not necessarily manipulation.
FCF is negative ($-0.1B)
Accruals ratio = -5.8%. Low accruals
Cash $0.2B covers debt $0.0B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $0.0B = 5% of equity. Manageable
Debt/EBITDA = -0.3x. Healthy
Other assets -11.7% vs revenue 52.5%. 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.
Goodwill+Intangibles change -25% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -2.33 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Portfolio monitoring
Monitor OUST continuously
The full checks and model details are free to read. Use Watchlist to track your holdings; Pro adds automatic quarterly rescoring, risk-event email alerts, scans up to 50 tickers, and export workflows.
Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-25