Telephone & Data Systems Inc /De/ (TDS) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Communication Services / Telecom · as of Sep 24, 2026
Telephone & Data Systems Inc /De/ (TDS)
A forensic read on Telephone & Data Systems Inc /De/ built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
9.3
P / E (ttm)
-0.1%
ROE
$4.2B
Market cap
3.85%
Dividend yield
-5.3%
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.
Telephone & Data Systems Inc /De/ earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-1.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -1.2% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -8%. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($6.7B to $7.2B, +7%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
+2.5%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+2.5%/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 ~2.5% 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 ~5%.
2% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 2% of revenue and 14% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.23 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 2.6% a year 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.
20d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 16 to 20 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +20% vs revenue -5%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 267 → 16 → 20 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Deferred revenue was roughly flat (-18%) over the same period, which doesn't corroborate a benign upfront-billing explanation for the receivables build. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.23B
Revenue Growth YoY-5.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-4.8%
Net Margin-0.5%
Free Cash Flow$199.4M
Return on Equity-0.1%
Debt / Equity0.17x
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 Telephone & Data Systems Inc /De/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?