Forensic Analysis · Newspaper & Publishing · as of Nov 9, 2026
USA Today Co., Inc. (TDAY)
A forensic read on USA Today Co., 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
-2.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
1.1%
ROE
-8.3%
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 (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.
USA Today Co., Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -2.2, 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
5.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.5% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.2% in FY2023, having run between -2.2% and 5.5% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $68M in FY2023 and $76M in FY2025, with operating income at 3.2% of revenue in FY2023 and -1.7% in FY2024. The capital base behind it came down -14% across FY2023–FY2025, from $1.6B to $1.4B, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. FY2023's operating profit carried a $24M restructuring charge that took about 1.2 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $32M restructuring charge that took about 1.8 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 0.6 points off the +1.3-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $66M restructuring charge and a $46M asset write-down that alone took about 5.8 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+2.2%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.2%/yr). The count is growing — 139.6M shares in FY2023, 146.0M 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%.
0.4% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.4% of revenue and 15% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.06 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 2.2% 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.30B
Revenue Growth YoY-8.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-7.0%
Net Margin0.1%
Free Cash Flow$62.9M
Return on Equity1.1%
Debt / Equity6.15x
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 USA Today Co., Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?