Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 11, 2026
Marketwise, Inc. (MKTW)
A forensic read on Marketwise, 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
Watch
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-19.7%
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.
Marketwise, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+21.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +46% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+21.0%/yr). The count is growing — 1.7M shares in FY2023, 2.4M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~21.0% 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 25% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $4.56 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 21.0% 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.
-78%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~78% 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$328.1M
Revenue Growth YoY-19.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-14.4%
Net Margin1.7%
Free Cash Flow$44.4M
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