Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Nov 8, 2026
Zillow Group, Inc. (Z)
A forensic read on Zillow Group, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
7.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
0.5%
ROE
15.5%
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.
Zillow Group, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 7.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.8% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -5.1%. After-tax operating profit was ($213M) in FY2023 and ($31M) in FY2025, with operating income at -13.9% of revenue in FY2023, -8.8% in FY2024 and -1.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $4.2B in FY2023 to $4.1B in FY2025 (-3%), while the revenue it carried went from $1.9B to $2.6B. $652M of the $4.1B base at FY2025 is short-term investments (16.0%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows.
285% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $670M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 285% of free cash flow. That is $435M (185%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. The balance sheet's own liquid holdings covered it: cash and short-term investments fell $563M over FY2025; total debt is not on file on the same basis at both year ends, so whether new borrowing also covered part of it cannot be read. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $390M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 451%.
+4.3%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +9% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+4.3%/yr). The count is growing — 233.6M shares in FY2023, 254.1M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.3% 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 ~8%.
15% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 15% of revenue and 166% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $1.53 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 4.3% 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$2.58B
Revenue Growth YoY+15.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+15.2%
Net Margin0.9%
Free Cash Flow$235.0M
Return on Equity0.5%
Debt / Equity0.12x
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 Zillow Group, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?