One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$-28.51 our estimate vs market $12.52
Wall Street consensus: $17.57 (-161.6% lower than our fair-value estimate)
144% below our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Sinclair, Inc.
SBGI · NMS · Communication Services · Broadcasting
Current price
$12.52
52-week range
$12.23 - $17.88
Market cap
$903.51M
Balance sheet
Distressed
0.39x Concerning
Net debt $3.59B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 2.7% last year.
- Reward Returns 20.4% on equity, ahead of 80% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 743.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 14.2% to 6.5% over 3 years.
What this company does
Sinclair, Inc.
Sinclair is one of the largest owners of local television stations in the U.S., broadcasting local news, sports, and national shows like the Tennis Channel. It makes most of its revenue (the total money a company brings in from sales before any costs are taken out) from fees paid by cable companies to carry its channels and from selling advertising time to businesses. This means the company's financial health is closely tied to the number of people watching traditional TV and the strength of the local ad market.
How the company got here
Sinclair was founded in 1971 with a single television station in Baltimore, Maryland. Over several decades, it grew by purchasing more and more local TV stations across the United States, becoming one of the nation's largest station operators. A key moment was the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which relaxed rules about how many stations a single company could own, allowing Sinclair to expand rapidly. The company has a history of being first with new technologies and business ideas in the broadcasting industry.
What it actually does
Sinclair is a media company that creates and shares content, primarily through its large network of local television stations. You would recognize their work in the local news broadcasts you watch, which are often affiliated with major networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. Besides news, they provide a mix of national programming, live sports, and other entertainment. They deliver this content for free over the airwaves, through cable and satellite providers, and on digital platforms like websites and apps.
Local Media
This is Sinclair's main business and where most of its money comes from. It involves operating 178 local TV stations in 78 different markets across the U.S. This segment makes money in two primary ways: selling advertising time to local and national businesses, and charging fees to cable and satellite companies (called retransmission fees) for the right to include Sinclair's local station signals in their channel lineups. This part of the company also includes several national TV networks you might see on secondary channels, like Comet (science fiction) and CHARGE! (action movies).
Tennis
This is a smaller but distinct part of Sinclair's business focused entirely on the sport of tennis. It's built around the Tennis Channel, a cable network that shows live tournaments from around the world, including major events like the French Open, along with tennis-related news and lifestyle shows. This segment earns money from fees paid by cable and satellite companies to carry the channel and from selling advertising during its programs. They also operate the website Tennis.com and a streaming service for dedicated fans.
What management is betting on now
Management is focused on strengthening its core local media business while also exploring new digital opportunities. They aim to be a leader in the potential consolidation (the merging of companies) of the broadcast industry, believing that larger scale will lead to more success. The company is also investing heavily in "NextGen Broadcast" technology (also known as ATSC 3.0), which promises to bring new features like interactive content and better picture quality to over-the-air television. This new technology could create fresh revenue streams (sources of income) beyond traditional advertising.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$193.00M
FY2024 Q4
$175.00M
FY2025 Q1
$-11.00M
FY2025 Q2
$105.00M
FY2025 Q3
$-58.00M
FY2025 Q4
$79.00M
FY2026 Q1
$28.00M
FY2026 Q2
$46.00M
Revenue
$840.00M
Net income
$-76.00M
Diluted EPS
-1.06
Operating cash flow
$66.00M
Free cash flow
$46.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$807.00M
Net income
$20.00M
Diluted EPS
0.28
Operating cash flow
$43.00M
Free cash flow
$28.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$836.00M
Net income
$109.00M
Diluted EPS
1.62
Operating cash flow
$98.00M
Free cash flow
$79.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$773.00M
Net income
$-1.00M
Diluted EPS
-0.02
Operating cash flow
$-36.00M
Free cash flow
$-58.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$784.00M
Net income
$-64.00M
Diluted EPS
-0.91
Operating cash flow
$122.00M
Free cash flow
$105.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$776.00M
Net income
$-156.00M
Diluted EPS
-2.30
Operating cash flow
$5.00M
Free cash flow
$-11.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.00B
Net income
$176.00M
Diluted EPS
2.64
Operating cash flow
$198.00M
Free cash flow
$175.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$917.00M
Net income
$94.00M
Diluted EPS
1.43
Operating cash flow
$210.00M
Free cash flow
$193.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $-28.51 vs current price $12.52
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $17.57 (-161.6% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $-28.51 a share — about 327.7% below today's price of $12.52, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $3.6B. Interest coverage 0.4x.
Net debt
$3.59B
Interest coverage
0.39x
Sinclair, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 0.4 times over. and 3 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
SBGI
BASELINE
Sinclair, Inc.
Total debt $4.19B Interest coverage 0.39x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $12.09B Interest coverage 2.28x +484% vs SBGI Carries about 5.8x more debt cushion than SBGI.
Total debt $5.89B Interest coverage 0.87x +122% vs SBGI Carries about 2.2x more debt cushion than SBGI.
Total debt $2.62B Interest coverage 0.73x +88% vs SBGI Carries about 1.9x more debt cushion than SBGI.
Total debt $206.27M Interest coverage 0.04x -91% vs SBGI Carries about 10.9x less debt cushion than SBGI.
What you should know
The case for and against SBGI
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 2.7% last year.
-
Returns 20.4% on equity, ahead of 80% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 5/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 743.7% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Operating margin compressed from 14.2% to 6.5% over 3 years.
-
Net debt grew 2.7% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
16.26x
Forward P/E
-6.37x
P/B
2.38x
P/S
0.28x
EV/EBITDA
9.24x
PEG ratio
0.37x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
45.4%
Operating margin
6.5%
Net margin
1.6%
ROE
20.4%
ROA
2.4%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
13.79x
Current ratio
1.94x
Quick ratio
1.75x
Total debt
$4.19B
Total cash
$604.00M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$3.26B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-15.2%
EPS TTM
0.77
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$171.00M
Free CF TTM
$115.00M
FCF margin
3.5%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
8.0%
Payout ratio
129.9%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-31