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Cardlytics

CDLX
17
Advertising Agencies · Communication Services
Price
$4.18
+0.05 (+1.21%)
Market Cap
$24.3M
Winston Score
17
Winston is worried
Weak fundamentals across most pillars.

Share count rising — dilution

+64.9% over 4y

The company has issued more shares over this period, which dilutes each existing shareholder’s stake.

Diluted shares outstanding: 3.2M (2021) → 5.3M (2025)

Cardlytics is a technology company that helps banks and retailers work together on advertising. It runs a platform embedded inside banking apps — like Bank of America and Chase — where customers see personalized cash-back offers based on their real spending history. The company sits inside the advertising industry but uses actual purchase data, not browsing behavior, to target ads.

Cardlytics makes money by charging brands and retailers a fee when a customer sees and redeems an offer through the bank's app. It operates mainly in the United States, with a smaller presence in the United Kingdom. Its main competitive advantage is access to verified purchase data from millions of bank accounts, which is difficult for competitors to replicate. However, the company has not yet turned a profit, and its growth depends heavily on convincing more advertisers to shift budgets onto its platform while keeping its large banking partners engaged — both of which remain ongoing challenges.

Winston Score History

Growth Profile

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

-44.6% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Revenue declining

EPS Growth

+69.2% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

EPS growth accelerating

R&D Spend

$40M/ year

Declining (-20% vs prior year)

17.0% of revenue

In line with sector average (12%)

R&D spend declining — could signal cost-cutting or efficiency

Insider Activity

5.7%ownership

Declining

Insider ownership declining — could be dilution or selling

Cash Runway

~19 months

$36M cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↑ Burn rate improving

Adequate runway but may need to raise capital within 2 years

Revenue declining

Cardlytics's revenue is actually shrinking. In a growth stock, that removes the core investment thesis. The low Winston Score here may be warranted — unless there's a turnaround story.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

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Quality

Gross Margin
49.9%
Healthy — 49.9% gross margin
Operating Margin
-24.1%
Losing money on operations — -24.1%
ROCE
-4.1%
Weak — -4.1% return on capital

Negative ROIC means the business is losing money on every dollar invested in it.

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Growth

Sales YoY
-24.5%
Shrinking sales (-24.5% YoY)
EPS YoY
N/A
Data not available
EPS Consistency
0/8 quarters
Earnings rarely grow — volatile business

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Cash Flow

Cash Conversion
N/A
Data not available
FCF Margin
2.8%
Thin free cash flow (2.8%)

FCF margin between 0% and 10%. Some cash from sales, but not a lot.

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Stability

Debt / Equity
N/A
Data not available
Interest Cover
N/A
Data not available

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Valuation

P/E Ratio (TTM)
N/M
Negative earnings — P/E not meaningful
P/E vs Forward
N/A
not available
Data not available

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Dividends

Not applicable for this business.
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