Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 9, 2026
Axcelis Technologies Inc (ACLS)
A forensic read on Axcelis Technologies Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
8.7
Distress distance
4
Forensic signals
11.7%
ROE
-17.6%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Axcelis Technologies Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 8.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
241d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 191 to 241 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +17% vs -18% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
113% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $121M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 113% of free cash flow. That is $14M (13%) more than free cash flow covered, and more than operating cash flow as well. 0 cash or debt balance changes listed; read coverage is not recorded; not read: the cash and debt balances for the two year ends. The FY2025 cash-flow statement filed $646M of investments purchased; net cash provided by investing activities of $30M; net cash used in financing activities of $124M. A payout past free cash flow draws the balance sheet down in every year it continues, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $21M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 133%.
0.73×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, cumulative operating cash flow was 0.73× cumulative net income. Cash is lagging reported profit. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.Cash conversion: operating cash flow divided by net income, the share of profit that arrived as cash.
10.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.2% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 28.3%. After-tax operating profit was $235M in FY2023 and $104M in FY2025, with operating income at 23.5% of revenue in FY2023, 20.7% in FY2024 and 14.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +23% across FY2023–FY2025, from $830M to $1.0B, while the return fell 18.1 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 28.3% the older base was already earning. $430M of the $1.0B base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (42.2%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so this rate understates what the operating capital earns.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$839.0M
Revenue Growth YoY-17.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-13.9%
Net Margin14.3%
Free Cash Flow$107.0M
Return on Equity11.7%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Axcelis Technologies Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?