Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 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
18.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
41.8
P / E (ttm)
11.6%
ROE
$4.1B
Market cap
-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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). 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 18.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 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. More than free cash flow generated — and beyond operating cash too, so the extra is coming from debt or cash reserves, 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, 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.
81d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 76 to 81 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables -17% vs revenue -18%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Only 73¢ of operating cash arrived for every dollar of profit reported over FY2023–FY2025 ($416.0M against $567.5M), and the receivables balance is one of the places the rest is sitting. Across FY2021–FY2025 the day count ran 53 → 54 → 63 → 76 → 81 days — the latest step continues a climb that was already under way, which is the persistence that separates a collection problem from a busy quarter.
10.2%
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$839.0M
Revenue Growth YoY-17.6%
Net Margin14.3%
Free Cash Flow$107.0M
Return on Equity11.6%
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?
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 10.2% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 33% — around its ~9% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.