Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Nov 8, 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.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
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 (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.
MediaAlpha, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade. 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 — 45.6M shares in FY2023, 66.8M in FY2025: 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 across FY2023–FY2025 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.
11.4%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 11.4% in the latest fiscal year, against -45.9% in FY2023, having run between -45.9% and 46.9% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($32M) in FY2023 and $17M in FY2025, with operating income at -10.3% of revenue in FY2023, 4.9% in FY2024 and 2.0% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +123% across FY2023–FY2025, from $69M to $153M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -45.9% the older base was already earning.
-19%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~19% in FY2025 (from FY2024). 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)+69.4%
Net Margin2.3%
Free Cash Flow$65.3M
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