Forensic Analysis · Communication Services / Telecom · as of Sep 24, 2026
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD)
A forensic read on Warner Bros. Discovery, 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
4
Forensic signals
-21.9
P / E (ttm)
2.0%
ROE
$77.2B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
-5.1%
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 (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.
Warner Bros. Discovery, 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. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
0.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.6% in the latest fiscal year, against -1% in FY2023, having run between -9.2% and 0.6% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. The capital base behind it came down -21% across FY2023–FY2025, from $105.4B to $83.2B, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work.
+1.9%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.9%/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 ~1.9% 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%.
52d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 46 to 52 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +7% vs revenue -5%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 53 → 46 → 52 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 (+5%) 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.
$9.1B
FY2024–FY2024
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$37.30B
Revenue Growth YoY-5.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-5.0%
Net Margin1.9%
Free Cash Flow$3.09B
Return on Equity2.0%
Debt / Equity0.91x
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 Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?