Forensic Analysis · Hospitality & Leisure · as of Aug 9, 2026
Choice Hotels International Inc (CHH)
A forensic read on Choice Hotels International Inc 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
Safe
Financial health
5.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
14.0
P / E (ttm)
204.1%
ROE
$4.8B
Market cap
1.05%
Dividend yield
0.8%
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). 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.
Choice Hotels International Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+19.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +19.3% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +17% against revenue +1%. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 5% of net operating assets.
117% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $192M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 117% of free cash flow, but 71% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash. Counting the $38M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 141%.
$3M
FY2019–FY2019
Goodwill impairments.Took $3M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2019 ($3M)) — about 1% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-95%
FY2012→FY2013
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~95% in FY2013 (from FY2012) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.60B
Revenue Growth YoY+0.8%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+4.4%
Net Margin23.2%
Free Cash Flow$163.6M
Return on Equity204.1%
Debt / Equity10.52x
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 Choice Hotels International Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?