Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 7, 2026
Kla Corp (KLAC)
A forensic read on Kla 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
18.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
52.3
P / E (ttm)
76.1%
ROE
$253.5B
Market cap
0.48%
Dividend yield
11.7%
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 (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.
Kla Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 18.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+21.9%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +21.9% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by receivables up +28% against revenue +12% and inventory up +14% against +11% in cost of sales. The cash-flow cross-check agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 7% of net operating assets.
n/m (stock split)
FY2023–FY2026
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed +841% over the last 3 years to FY2026, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2024 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw +111.1%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
$493M
FY2024–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $493M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($263M), FY2025 ($230M)) — about 7% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-89%
FY2014→FY2015
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~89% in FY2015 (from FY2014) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies. Measured on total dividend dollars rather than per share: the reported share count steps sharply around FY2024, a stock-split seam between filing vintages rather than a change in the payout, and a split leaves the dollars paid untouched.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$13.58B
Revenue Growth YoY+11.7%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+9.0%
Net Margin35.6%
Free Cash Flow$3.77B
Return on Equity76.1%
Debt / Equity0.93x
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 Kla Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?