Harte Hanks, Inc. — financial distress indicators
Financial-health summary
Harte Hanks, Inc.'s reported numbers place it in the 'Watch' financial-health band (distress score 35/100). The main indicators are losses in each of the last 3 years, operations consume cash and cash runway under 24 months. In its favour: high insider/promoter ownership (47%) aligns management with survival.
Stress by dimension
Share price — last 12 months
Indicators behind the score
Each red flag shows the evidence from the company’s own filings and the financial or legal principle behind it. Points add to the 0–100 score.
Net income negative in 3 of 3 fiscal years.
Persistent losses erode equity and the capacity to absorb shocks.
Operating cash flow negative in 2 of the last 3 years.
A business that cannot fund itself from operations depends on external capital to survive.
Cash covers ~14 months of free-cash-flow burn.
Funding needs within two years make the company dependent on capital-market access.
Revenue declined every year for three years.
Structural, not cyclical, decline.
Revenue vs net income
Cash generation
Debt vs cash vs equity
✅ Mitigating factors
- High insider/promoter ownership (47%) aligns management with survival.
📰 Recent news scan
- Harte Hanks Announces Expiration of "Go-Shop Period" and Designation of "Exempted Parties"Yahoo Finance · 2026-09-15
- Harte Hanks Enters Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by Star Equity Holdings for $5.00 Per ShareYahoo Finance · 2026-08-14
- Star Equity Holdings Enters Into Merger Agreement to Acquire Harte HanksYahoo Finance · 2026-08-14
- Harte Hanks Receives Lenovo Operational Excellence Award for Driving AI-Enabled CX Performance and Operational Scale for MotorolaYahoo Finance · 2026-06-16
- Harte Hanks Reports First Quarter 2026 ResultsYahoo Finance · 2026-05-14
⚖️ U.S. legal pathway — Title 11, U.S. Code
Which chapter would apply?
- Chapter 11 — reorganisation. Management usually stays in control as debtor-in-possession; the automatic stay (§362) halts collection; a plan must meet the best-interests test (§1129(a)(7)) and the absolute priority rule (§1129(b)) — creditors are paid before shareholders, who are frequently wiped out.
- Chapter 7 — liquidation. A trustee sells assets and distributes proceeds by statutory priority (§§507, 726).
- Subchapter V (“Chapter 5”) is a fast track for small-business debtors under a statutory debt cap, but SEC-reporting companies are excluded (§101(51D)) — so it rarely applies to listed companies.
What typically triggers a filing
- Payment default or covenant breach lenders will not waive; a debt maturity that cannot be refinanced.
- Auditor going-concern doubt (ASC 205-40 / PCAOB AS 2415) — often itself a default trigger in loan agreements.
- Creditors can force a case with an involuntary petition (§303) if debts are not paid as they come due.
- Delisting after sustained sub-$1 prices or equity deficits cuts off equity funding.
Transactions shortly before filing can be clawed back (preferences — 90 days, §547; fraudulent transfers — 2 years, §548).
Frequently asked questions
What do Harte Hanks, Inc.'s financial-health indicators show?
As of 2026-10-08, Harte Hanks, Inc.'s public financial data places it in the 'Watch' band with a distress score of 35/100, driven by losses in each of the last 3 years, operations consume cash and cash runway under 24 months. This is a statistical screen of reported numbers — it does not mean the company is insolvent, has defaulted or will enter insolvency proceedings.
What is Harte Hanks, Inc.'s financial distress score?
35/100 ('Watch').
What works in Harte Hanks, Inc.'s favour?
High insider/promoter ownership (47%) aligns management with survival.
How are shareholders treated if a company enters insolvency?
In a Chapter 11 reorganisation the absolute priority rule pays secured lenders, then unsecured creditors, before shareholders — so existing shares are usually cancelled or heavily diluted. In Chapter 7 the company is liquidated and shareholders rarely recover anything.
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Methodology
Score = capped sum of rule-based red flags across seven dimensions (liquidity, solvency, profitability, cash flow, sales trend, market signal, news). Ohlson O-score (1980) gives an accounting-based 1-year failure probability; Merton distance-to-default (Bharath & Shumway 2008) gives a market-implied probability. Financial institutions use a capital-based rule set. Recalculated every trading day from the latest filings, prices and news.