Mediaalpha, Inc. (MAX) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Sep 24, 2026
Mediaalpha, Inc. (MAX)
A forensic read on Mediaalpha, 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
-1.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
6.6
P / E (ttm)
$575M
Market cap
28.8%
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.
Mediaalpha, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -1.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+21.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +47% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+21.1%/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 ~21.1% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~32%.
3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue and 46% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.45 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 21.1% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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.
8.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.3% in the latest fiscal year, against -46% in FY2023, having run between -45.9% and 40.4% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it grew +207% across FY2023–FY2025, from $69M to $211M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -46% the older base was already earning.
-63%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~63% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.11B
Revenue Growth YoY+28.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+69.3%
Net Margin2.3%
Free Cash Flow$65.3M
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 Mediaalpha, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?