Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Aug 11, 2026
Graham Holdings Co (GHC)
A forensic read on Graham Holdings Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
5.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
9.3
P / E (ttm)
6.1%
ROE
$5.0B
Market cap
0.63%
Dividend yield
2.5%
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.
Graham Holdings Co earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.3% in the latest fiscal year and steady — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
0.83×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, operating cash flow was 0.83× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
+12.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +12.9% 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 +9% against revenue +3%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 1% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
$241M
FY2020–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $241M of goodwill writedowns across 5 years (FY2022 ($102M), FY2023 ($98M), FY2024 ($8M)) — about 15% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.91B
Revenue Growth YoY+2.5%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+7.8%
Net Margin6.0%
Free Cash Flow$275.3M
Return on Equity6.1%
Debt / Equity0.18x
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 Graham Holdings Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?