Forensic Analysis · Retail / Consumer Discretionary · as of Aug 11, 2026

Dave & Buster'S Entertainment, Inc. (PLAY)

A forensic read on Dave & Buster'S Entertainment, 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

0.2

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

-5.5

P / E (ttm)

$344M

Market cap

0.00%

Dividend yield

-1.4%

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.

Dave & Buster'S Entertainment, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.2, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

1.9%

FY2026

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 1.9% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 7% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

FCF ($101M)

FY2026

Shareholder returns. Returned $24M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026, but free cash flow was ($101M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $291M — 8% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.

suspended

FY2020→FY2023

Dividend — suspended. The dividend has been SUSPENDED — $5M paid in FY2020, then $0 in FY2023. A suspension is a major signal the board is conserving cash; the prior payment history doesn't offset it.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$2.10B

Revenue Growth YoY-1.4%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+2.3%

Net Margin-2.3%

Free Cash Flow-$100.6M

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