Forensic Analysis · Hospitality & Leisure · as of Aug 11, 2026

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. (SHO)

A forensic read on Sunstone Hotel Investors, 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

Safe

Financial health

3.1

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

55.0

P / E (ttm)

1.3%

ROE

$2.0B

Market cap

3.19%

Dividend yield

6.0%

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.

Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

0.8%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 0.8% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 4% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

240% of FCF

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $189M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 240% of free cash flow. More than free cash flow generated — and beyond operating cash too, so the extra is coming from debt or cash reserves, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $9M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 251%.

-91%

FY2020→FY2021

Dividend — cut. The payout was CUT ~91% in FY2021 (from FY2020) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$960.1M

Revenue Growth YoY+6.0%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+1.7%

Net Margin2.6%

Free Cash Flow$78.7M

Return on Equity1.3%

Debt / Equity0.48x

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 Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?

Generate the AI investment read →

No credit card · informational only, not investment advice · see the track record

← Browse all forensic stock analyses

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