Forensic Analysis · Semiconductors · as of Aug 11, 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

Forensic signals

-231.6

P / E (ttm)

-10.3%

ROE

$2.9B

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). 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. 3 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 and rising from -18% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

+4.0%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share-count dilution. Diluted share count changed +12% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+4.0%/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 ~4.0% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~11%.

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. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 4.0% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$261.3M

Revenue Growth YoY+31.6%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+2.6%

Net Margin-9.0%

Free Cash Flow$12.3M

Return on Equity-10.3%

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.