Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Aug 11, 2026
Groupon, Inc. (GRPN)
A forensic read on Groupon, 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
-6.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-8.1
P / E (ttm)
$932M
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
1.2%
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). 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.
Groupon, Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -6.2, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+10.1%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +34% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+10.1%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. Note: the share count shows a large one-time jump around FY2012, consistent with a reverse split or bankruptcy reorg rather than gradual buybacks, so the earlier shrinkage doesn't reflect real repurchase discipline. That's ~10.1% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~25%.
stopped
FY2019→FY2021
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $46M of buybacks + dividends in FY2019, but ~$0 in FY2021. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
8% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 8% of revenue and 76% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.94 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count, and there it has run at about 10.6% a year and is falling.
$145M
FY2020–FY2022
Goodwill impairments.Took $145M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2020 ($109M), FY2022 ($35M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$498.4M
Revenue Growth YoY+1.2%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-5.9%
Net Margin-16.8%
Free Cash Flow$49.9M
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 Groupon, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?