Forensic Analysis · Semiconductors · as of Sep 25, 2026
Nlight, Inc. (LASR)
A forensic read on Nlight, Inc. 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
12.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-159.8
P / E (ttm)
-10.3%
ROE
$2.4B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
31.6%
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.
Nlight, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 12.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-13.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -13.8% in the latest fiscal year, against -16.7% in FY2023, having run between -30.5% and -13.8% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($37M) in FY2023 and ($21M) in FY2025, with operating income at -22.3% of revenue in FY2023, -33.1% in FY2024 and -10.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -31% across FY2023–FY2025, from $221M to $152M, so this is a return struck on a smaller base rather than a record of money put to work.
+4.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +8% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+4.1%/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 ~4.1% 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 ~8%.
13% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 13% of revenue and 272% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.67 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 4.1% 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.
71d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 64 to 71 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +46% vs revenue +32%). Receivables are creeping up relative to sales. Across FY2023–FY2025 the day count ran 69 → 64 → 71 days, so the latest reading sits on top of a record that was flat or falling before it — one year's move, not a direction the business has been travelling in. Deferred revenue was roughly flat (-19%) over the same period, which doesn't corroborate a benign upfront-billing explanation for the receivables build. Both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, because averaging needs the balance a year before every reading — FY2024's opening balance is on file, but across the 3 fiscal years read here (FY2023–FY2025) the average yields only 2 day counts (1 step), too few to tell a climb from one year's move.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$261.3M
Revenue Growth YoY+31.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+11.6%
Net Margin-9.0%
Free Cash Flow$12.3M
Return on Equity-10.3%
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 Nlight, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?