Forensic Analysis · Healthcare Providers & Services · as of Nov 9, 2026
Ardent Health, Inc. (ARDT)
A forensic read on Ardent Health, 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
2.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
11.2%
ROE
6.0%
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.
Ardent Health, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.3, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+6.6%/yr
FY2024–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 1 year to FY2025 (+6.6%/yr). The count is growing — 132.7M shares in FY2024, 141.5M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~6.6% 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 ~6%.
7.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.8% in the latest fiscal year, against 10.2% in FY2024. After-tax operating profit was $354M in FY2024 and $274M in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $3.5B in FY2024 to $3.5B in FY2025 (+1%), while the revenue it carried went from $6.0B to $6.3B.
0.6% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.6% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.28 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 6.6% a year across FY2024–FY2025, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. 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$6.32B
Revenue Growth YoY+6.0%
Net Margin2.1%
Return on Equity11.2%
Debt / Equity0.85x
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 Ardent Health, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?