Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
Netscout Systems Inc (NTCT)
A forensic read on Netscout Systems 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
4.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
6.0%
ROE
4.5%
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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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.
Netscout Systems Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.0, placing it in the Safe zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
6.8%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 6.8% in the latest fiscal year, against -6.5% in FY2024, having run between -18.5% and 6.8% across FY2024–FY2026 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($118M) in FY2024 and $89M in FY2026, with operating income at -18.1% of revenue in FY2024, -44.7% in FY2025 and 12.8% in FY2026. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2024–FY2026: long-term debt 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. FY2024's operating profit carried a $217M goodwill write-off that alone took about 9.5 points off that year's return, so about 9.5 of the 13.3-point rise across FY2024–FY2026 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. FY2025's operating profit carried a $427M goodwill write-off and a $20M restructuring charge that alone took about 22.6 points off that year's return; FY2025 sits between the two ends of FY2024–FY2026, so the charge shapes the path between them without moving the change across it. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
$644M
FY2024–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $644M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2024 ($217M), FY2025 ($427M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$859.5M
Revenue Growth YoY+4.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+1.8%
Net Margin11.1%
Free Cash Flow$285.4M
Return on Equity6.0%
Debt / Equity0.00x
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 Netscout Systems Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?