Forensic Analysis · Semiconductors · as of Sep 25, 2026
Intel Corp (INTC)
A forensic read on Intel Corp 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
Safe
Financial health
8.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
-51.5
P / E (ttm)
-0.2%
ROE
$647.9B
Market cap
1.14%
Dividend yield
-0.5%
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 (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). 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.
Intel Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 8.7, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.9% in the latest fiscal year, against 0.1% in FY2023, having run between -5.9% and 0.1% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $84M in FY2023 and ($1.4B) in FY2025, with operating income at 0.2% of revenue in FY2023, -22.0% in FY2024 and -4.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2023–FY2025: cash is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged. FY2023's operating profit carried a $424M restructuring charge and a $45M asset write-down that took about 0.3 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $522M asset write-down and a $476M restructuring charge that took about 0.4 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 0.1 points off the -1.0-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $3.6B asset write-down, a $3.5B restructuring charge and a $3.0B goodwill write-off that alone took about 5.1 points off that year's return; FY2024 sits between the two ends of FY2023–FY2025, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it.
+3.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +8% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+3.7%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.7% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~7%.
5% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 5% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.54 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 3.7% a year 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$52.85B
Revenue Growth YoY-0.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-1.3%
Net Margin-0.5%
Free Cash Flow-$4.95B
Return on Equity-0.2%
Debt / Equity0.41x
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 Intel Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $1.6B of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
126d
FY2024→FY2025
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 119 to 126 FY2024→FY2025 (against cost of goods sold; inventory -5% vs -4% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns.
$3.0B
FY2024–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $3.0B of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($3.0B)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.