Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Sep 27, 2026
E.W. Scripps Co (SSP)
A forensic read on E.W. Scripps Co 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
0.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-0.2
P / E (ttm)
-8.1%
ROE
$280M
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
-14.3%
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, going concern, valuation). 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.
E.W. Scripps Co earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.3, 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
3.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.2% in the latest fiscal year, against -12.1% in FY2023, having run between -12.1% and 6.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($595M) in FY2023 and $145M in FY2025, with operating income at -32.9% of revenue in FY2023, 16.4% in FY2024 and 8.6% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $4.9B in FY2023 to $4.5B in FY2025 (-8%), while the revenue it carried went from $2.3B to $2.2B. FY2023's operating profit carried a $952M goodwill write-off and a $39M restructuring charge that alone took about 15.9 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 15.3-point rise across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more.
+2.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.2%/yr). The count is growing — 84.3M shares in FY2023, 88.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.2% 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 ~4%.
$952M
FY2023–FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $952M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($952M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.15B
Revenue Growth YoY-14.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-3.2%
Net Margin-4.7%
Free Cash Flow$6.5M
Return on Equity-8.1%
Debt / Equity2.08x
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 E.W. Scripps Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?