Forensic Analysis · Media / Entertainment / Streaming · as of Aug 11, 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.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
36.6
P / E (ttm)
1.1%
ROE
$1.0B
Market cap
-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 (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.
Usa Today Co., Inc. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -1.7, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.1% in the latest fiscal year and steady — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+2.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +7% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+2.2%/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 ~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 FY2022 has been diluted ~6%.
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. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 2.2% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
suspended
FY2019→FY2021
Dividend — suspended.The dividend has been SUSPENDED — $92M paid in FY2019, then $0 in FY2021. A suspension is a major signal the board is conserving cash; the prior payment history doesn't offset it.
$425M
FY2019–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $425M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2019 ($62M), FY2020 ($362M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$2.30B
Revenue Growth YoY-8.3%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-7.9%
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?