Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Oct 20, 2026
Lionsgate Studios Corp. (LION)
A forensic read on Lionsgate Studios Corp. 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
-4.3
Distress distance (no retained-earnings input)
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
1.8%
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). 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.
Lionsgate Studios Corp. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -4.3, 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
2.9%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.9% in the latest fiscal year, against -0.4% in FY2025. After-tax operating profit was ($14M) in FY2025 and $77M in FY2026, with operating income at -0.7% of revenue in FY2025 and 3.7% in FY2026. The capital base behind it came down -18% across FY2025–FY2026, from $3.3B to $2.7B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on.
+14.7%/yr
FY2025–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +15% over the last 1 year to FY2026 (+14.7%/yr). The count is growing — 248.9M shares in FY2025, 285.4M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~14.7% 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 FY2025 has been diluted ~13%.
109d DSO
FY2025→FY2026
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 83 to 109 days FY2025→FY2026 (receivables +34% vs revenue +2%). Receivables grew, but deferred revenue grew +84% over the same period too — rising alongside rising unearned revenue reads as upfront billing on multi-period contracts, not slipping collections. There's no FY2024 figure on file for receivables, so FY2025 has no opening balance to average against — both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, since averaging only the current year would make the move track balance-sheet growth rather than the business.
3% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue and 684% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.27 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 14.7% a year across FY2025–FY2026, 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$2.63B
Revenue Growth YoY+1.8%
Net Margin-7.5%
Free Cash Flow$11.4M
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 Lionsgate Studios Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?