Forensic Analysis · Industrial & Scientific Instruments · as of Nov 9, 2026
Coherent Corp. (COHR)
A forensic read on Coherent Corp. 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
3.6
Distress distance
5
Forensic signals
9.7%
ROE
22.5%
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.
Coherent Corp. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.6, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
165d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 132 to 165 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +80% vs +18% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead.
+13.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +29% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+13.5%/yr). The count is growing — 151.6M shares in FY2024, 195.4M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~13.5% 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 ~22%.
3% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue in FY2026 — about $0.95 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 13.5% a year across FY2024–FY2026 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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.
FCF ($1.0B)
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $11M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026, but free cash flow was ($1.0B) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $80M — 14% of that. Capex and the payout together ran $1.0B past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. Over FY2026 cash and short-term investments rose $1.1B and total debt fell $465M, so neither line funded the gap. The FY2026 cash-flow statement filed $1.7B of debt repaid; $2.0B from shares issued; $1.0B of investments purchased; net cash used in investing activities of $1.4B; net cash provided by financing activities of $1.5B.
7.0%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.0% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from 0.6%. After-tax operating profit was $76M in FY2024 and $934M in FY2026, with operating income at 2.0% of revenue in FY2024. The capital base behind it went from $12.3B in FY2024 to $13.3B in FY2026 (+9%), while the revenue it carried went from $4.7B to $7.1B. FY2024's operating profit carried a $27M restructuring charge that alone took about 0.2 points off that year's return, so about 0.2 of the 6.4-point rise across FY2024–FY2026 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. FY2025's operating profit carried a $160M 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$7.12B
Revenue Growth YoY+22.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+23.0%
Net Margin11.3%
Free Cash Flow-$1.02B
Return on Equity9.7%
Debt / Equity0.30x
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 Coherent Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?