Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Oct 23, 2026
Cardlytics, Inc. (CDLX)
A forensic read on Cardlytics, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-17.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-326.0%
ROE
-16.2%
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). 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.
Cardlytics, Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -17.1, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-42.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -42.1% in the latest fiscal year, against -34.4% in FY2023, having run between -57.7% and -34.4% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($107M) in FY2023 and ($80M) in FY2025, with operating income at -43.9% of revenue in FY2023, -70.2% in FY2024 and -43.6% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -39% across FY2023–FY2025, from $311M to $191M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2023's operating profit carried a $71M goodwill write-off and a $5M asset write-down that took about 19.1 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $49M goodwill write-off that took about 20.3 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 1.2 points off the -7.7-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $118M goodwill write-off and a $14M asset write-down that alone took about 38.8 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
+20.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +46% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+20.7%/yr). The count is growing — 36.5M shares in FY2023, 53.1M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~20.7% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~31%.
12% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 12% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.53 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 20.7% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. 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.
$237M
FY2023–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $237M of goodwill writedowns across 3 years (FY2023 ($71M), FY2024 ($118M), FY2025 ($49M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$233.3M
Revenue Growth YoY-16.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-13.1%
Net Margin-44.4%
Free Cash Flow-$6.5M
Return on Equity-326.0%
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 Cardlytics, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?