Cars.com Inc. — Earnings Quality Grade F
CARS · Communication Services
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Management Signals
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 67 days, change -1 days YoY
AR growth -1.3% vs revenue growth 0.6%
Revenue 0.6%, CFFO -0.6%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
No material inventory
CapEx growth 6.3% vs revenue 0.6%. Normal
SG&A/Gross Profit = 55.1%. Normal
Gross margin 82.9%, change +0.2pp. Stable
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = 7.56. Profits backed by cash
FCF $0.1B, FCF/NI = 6.27
Accruals ratio = -12.4%. Low accruals
Cash $0.1B covers only 12% of debt $0.5B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $0.7B = 147% of equity. Over 50%
Interest coverage = 2.0x (<2x). Financial stress
Other assets 19.7% vs revenue 0.6%. Normal
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions positive
Goodwill+Intangibles change -5% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -3.09 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Portfolio monitoring
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Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-25