Forensic Analysis · Industrial & Scientific Instruments · as of Nov 8, 2026
Cohu Inc (COHU)
A forensic read on Cohu 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
5.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
-9.0%
ROE
12.7%
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.
Cohu Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+23.6%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +23.6% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. Net operating assets also rose $16.9M through acquisitions (increase in goodwill and intangibles); that purchase is investing and is excluded from this ratio. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 14% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 23.6%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
-6.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -6.8% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 3.5%. After-tax operating profit was $28M in FY2023 and ($55M) in FY2025, with operating income at 6.8% of revenue in FY2023, -17.8% in FY2024 and -15.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $808M in FY2023 to $814M in FY2025 (+1%), while the revenue it carried went from $636M to $453M. $156M of the $814M base at FY2025 is short-term investments (19.2%) — 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 the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$453.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+12.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-15.6%
Net Margin-16.4%
Free Cash Flow$10.7M
Return on Equity-9.0%
Debt / Equity0.38x
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 Cohu Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?