Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Aug 11, 2026

Iheartmedia, Inc. (IHRT)

A forensic read on Iheartmedia, Inc. 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

-2.4

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

-2.1

P / E (ttm)

$555M

Market cap

0.00%

Dividend yield

0.3%

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.

Iheartmedia, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -2.4, placing it in the Distress 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 and steady — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

+1.4%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share-count dilution. Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+1.4%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.4% 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 ~4%.

258% of FCF

FY2012

Shareholder returns. Returned $245M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2012 — 258% of free cash flow, but 50% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash.

$2.4B

FY2020–FY2024

Goodwill impairments. Took $2.4B of goodwill writedowns across 3 years (FY2020 ($1.2B), FY2023 ($595M), FY2024 ($616M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$3.86B

Revenue Growth YoY+0.3%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)-0.4%

Net Margin-12.2%

Free Cash Flow$10.9M

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.