Forensic Analysis · Hospitality & Leisure · as of Sep 25, 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
185.2
P / E (ttm)
-1.6%
ROE
$14.8B
Market cap
0.51%
Dividend yield
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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 2.0, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.5% in the latest fiscal year, against 3.5% in FY2023, having run between 2.5% and 15.2% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $323M in FY2023 and $259M in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +14% across FY2023–FY2025, from $9.1B to $10.4B, while the return fell 1.0 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 3.5% the older base was already earning. 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 1.0-point fall across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less.
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–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-1.6%
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?