Forensic Analysis · Semiconductors · as of Sep 25, 2026
Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc (KLIC)
A forensic read on Kulicke & Soffa Industries 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
20.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
37.6
P / E (ttm)
0.0%
ROE
$4.8B
Market cap
1.59%
Dividend yield
-7.4%
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.
Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 20.4, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-0.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.3% in the latest fiscal year, against 4.0% in FY2023, having run between -8.8% and 4.0% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $31M in FY2023 and ($2M) in FY2025, with operating income at 5.3% of revenue in FY2023, -13.1% in FY2024 and -0.5% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -11% across FY2023–FY2025, from $789M to $700M, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work. FY2023's operating profit carried a $22M asset write-down and a $10M goodwill write-off that took about 3.1 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $40M asset write-down, a $19M goodwill write-off and a $957,000 restructuring charge that took about 5.6 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 2.5 points off the -4.3-point change across FY2023–FY2025. FY2024's operating profit carried a $44M asset write-down that alone took about 4.2 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.
101% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $97M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 101% of free cash flow. That is $743,000 (0.8%) more than free cash flow covered. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash and short-term investments fell $66M over FY2025. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 86% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $29M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 130%.
$29M
FY2023–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $29M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2023 ($10M), FY2025 ($19M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$654.1M
Revenue Growth YoY-7.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-6.1%
Net Margin0.0%
Free Cash Flow$96.4M
Return on Equity0.0%
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 Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?