Forensic Analysis · Advertising Agencies · as of Nov 10, 2026
Ibotta, Inc. (IBTA)
A forensic read on Ibotta, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
1.0%
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.
Ibotta, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.9, 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
-0.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.4% in the latest fiscal year, against 20.1% in FY2024. After-tax operating profit was $25M in FY2024 and ($546,650) in FY2025, with operating income at 7.6% of revenue in FY2024 and -0.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $125M in FY2024 to $128M in FY2025 (+3%), while the revenue it carried went from $367M to $342M. In FY2025, $34M went into capital expenditure against $8M of total depreciation and 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.
+12.1%/yr
FY2024–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +12% over the last 1 year to FY2025 (+12.1%/yr). The count is growing — 26.9M shares in FY2024, 30.1M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~12.1% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~11%.
382% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $233M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 382% of free cash flow. That is $172M (282%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash fell $163M over FY2025, with total debt flat. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $44M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 455%.
13% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 13% of revenue and 72% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $1.47 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 12.1% a year across FY2024–FY2025, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$342.4M
Revenue Growth YoY-6.8%
Net Margin1.0%
Free Cash Flow$61.0M
Return on Equity1.0%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 Ibotta, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?