Forensic Analysis · Live Entertainment & Events · as of Nov 8, 2026
Tko Group Holdings, Inc. (TKO)
A forensic read on Tko Group Holdings, 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
1.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
5.0%
ROE
-3.1%
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.
Tko Group Holdings, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.0, placing it in the Distress zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.7% in the latest fiscal year, against 2.5% in FY2023, having run between 0.2% and 5.7% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $301M in FY2023 and $733M in FY2025, with operating income at 11.7% of revenue in FY2023, 0.6% in FY2024 and 17.6% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $12.0B in FY2023 to $13.0B in FY2025 (+8%), while the revenue it carried went from $3.2B to $4.7B. FY2023's operating profit carried a $41M restructuring charge, a $22M asset write-down and a $8M goodwill write-off that alone took about 0.5 points off that year's return, so about 0.5 of the 3.2-point rise across FY2023–FY2025 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. FY2024's operating profit carried a $28M asset write-down and a $17M restructuring charge that alone took about 0.3 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.
+53.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +134% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+53.1%/yr). The count is growing — 82.8M shares in FY2023, 194.0M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~53.1% 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 ~57%.
2% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 2% of revenue and 10% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.61 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 53.1% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. 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.
91% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.1B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 91% of free cash flow. Right at the limit of what free cash flow covers — little room before it's funded by debt or the balance sheet. That ratio has actually been EASING, not tightening further — down from ~230% of free cash flow two years back. Counting the $118M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 101%.
$8M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $8M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($8M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-77%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~77% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies. Measured on total dividend dollars rather than per share: the reported share count steps sharply around FY2024, a stock-split seam between filing vintages rather than a change in the payout, and a split leaves the dollars paid untouched.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.74B
Revenue Growth YoY-3.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+21.2%
Net Margin4.1%
Free Cash Flow$1.16B
Return on Equity5.0%
Debt / Equity1.01x
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 Tko Group Holdings, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?