Lee Enterprises Incorporated Common Stock (LEE)

FairStock Score: 34/100 — RISKY

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I look for durable earnings and a strong balance sheet. Lee Enterprises is a local news and advertising company with digital subscriptions and print papers. Its market value is $152.3 million at the 2026-10-13 close of $6.83. The filings show a shrinking enterprise: fiscal 2025 revenue was $562.3 million, down from $611.4 million in fiscal 2024 and $691.1 million in fiscal 2023. It lost $37.6 million in fiscal 2025, $25.8 million in fiscal 2024, and $5.3 million in fiscal 2023. The latest filed quarter, fiscal Q3 2026 ended 2026-06-28, did produce $126.0 million of revenue, $4.7 million of net income, and $0.21 diluted EPS, but the first two quarters of fiscal 2026 had losses. At that close, FairStock's trailing P/E is negative at -5.42; its FCF yield is -0.4% and its Altman Z-score is -0.30, a distress signal. Debt is enormous: D/E 12,187.08. A Piotroski F-score of 8/9 is a rare bright spot, but it does not override negative free cash flow and persistent losses. Local news can have loyal subscribers and local ad relationships, yet the moat against digital platforms and shifting reader habits is shrinking, not widening. At a FairStock EV/EBITDA of 14.03, the price does not compensate me for the leverage, declining revenue, and negative FCF. This is not a Graham net-net, nor a Buffett-style compounder. I would need evidence of durable positive free cash flow and debt reduction before seeing value.

In plain English: Lee Enterprises runs local newspapers and digital news and advertising services in the United States. The business looks weak: revenue has shrunk for years, it has lost money in each of the last four years, and it carries a lot of debt. At $6.83 a share, the price does not look clearly cheap against those weak numbers, even though the latest filed quarter showed a small profit.

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Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q3 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-06-28) · fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-03-29) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2025-12-28) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-06-29) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-09-28) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-09-29) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-09-24)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer