Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Aug 11, 2026
Sinclair, Inc. (SBGI)
A forensic read on Sinclair, 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
16.7
P / E (ttm)
-25.3%
ROE
$993M
Market cap
6.78%
Dividend yield
-10.7%
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 (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.
Sinclair, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.4, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by receivables vs revenue.
What the filings flag
76d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 64 to 76 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +8% vs revenue -11%). Receivables are outrunning sales — a flag for aggressive revenue recognition or slipping collections. Deferred revenue was roughly flat (-12%) over the same period, which doesn't corroborate a benign upfront-billing explanation for the receivables build.
3.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -6% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+3.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +6% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+3.0%/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 ~3.0% 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 ~6%.
1.6% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.6% of revenue and 44% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.74 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 3.0% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$3.17B
Revenue Growth YoY-10.7%
Net Margin-3.5%
Free Cash Flow$115.0M
Return on Equity-25.3%
Debt / Equity10.02x
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 Sinclair, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?