Forensic Analysis · Communications Equipment & Electronic Components · as of Nov 11, 2026
Aviat Networks, Inc. (AVNW)
A forensic read on Aviat Networks, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
0.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
1.0%
ROE
1.2%
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.
Aviat Networks, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.3, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.0% in the latest fiscal year, against 5.0% in FY2024, having run between 2.4% and 5.0% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $13M in FY2024 and $13M in FY2026, with operating income at 4.8% of revenue in FY2024, 2.4% in FY2025 and 4.4% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +22% across FY2024–FY2026, from $254M to $310M, while the return fell 1.0 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 5.0% the older base was already earning. FY2025's operating profit carried a $4M restructuring charge that alone took about 0.8 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
+2.3%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +5% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+2.3%/yr). The count is growing — 12.5M shares in FY2024, 13.0M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~2.3% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2024 has been diluted ~4%.
1.4% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.4% of revenue and 102% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.48 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 2.3% a year across FY2024–FY2026, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$439.7M
Revenue Growth YoY+1.2%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.8%
Net Margin0.6%
Free Cash Flow$6.1M
Return on Equity1.0%
Debt / Equity0.36x
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 Aviat Networks, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?