Forensic Analysis · Hotels & Casinos · as of Nov 10, 2026
Hyatt Hotels Corp (H)
A forensic read on Hyatt Hotels Corp 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
Distress
Financial health
0.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-1.5%
ROE
6.8%
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 (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.
Hyatt Hotels Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.6% in the latest fiscal year, against 3.5% in FY2023, having run between 2.6% and 15.5% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $323M in FY2023 and $259M in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $9.1B in FY2023 to $9.9B in FY2025 (+9%), while the revenue it carried went from $6.7B to $7.1B. Across FY2024–FY2025, $2.3B went into capital expenditure and acquisitions against $382M of depreciation excluding $276M of intangible-asset amortisation. The base is struck net of amortisation, write-downs and the current liabilities that fund it, so it moved by less than that spending net of the wear, and this row does not say which of those absorbed the difference. FY2025's operating profit carried a $57M restructuring charge and a $40M asset write-down that alone took about 0.6 points off that year's return, so about 0.6 of the 0.9-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
220% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $350M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 220% of free cash flow. That is $191M (120%) more than free cash flow covered. The balance sheet covered it: cash and short-term investments fell $570M and total debt rose $496M over FY2025. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $74M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 267%.
$163M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $163M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($163M)) — about 13% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$7.10B
Revenue Growth YoY+6.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.2%
Net Margin-0.7%
Free Cash Flow$159.0M
Return on Equity-1.5%
Debt / Equity1.28x
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 Hyatt Hotels Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?