Forensic Analysis · Computer Hardware · as of Nov 11, 2026
Netgear, Inc. (NTGR)
A forensic read on Netgear, 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
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
-3.5%
ROE
3.8%
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.
Netgear, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.5, placing it in the Grey zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-8.1%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -8.1% in the latest fiscal year, against -6.5% in FY2023, having run between -8.1% and 2.3% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($26M) in FY2023 and ($27M) in FY2025, with operating income at -4.5% of revenue in FY2023, 1.8% in FY2024 and -4.9% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -18% across FY2023–FY2025, from $406M to $335M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $118M of the $335M base at FY2025 is short-term investments (35.1%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows. FY2023's operating profit carried a $4M restructuring charge and a $1M asset write-down that took about 1.1 points off that year's return, and FY2025's carried a $8M restructuring charge that took about 1.8 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 0.7 points off the -1.6-point change across FY2023–FY2025. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
FCF ($19M)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $51M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($19M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $2M — 3155% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$699.6M
Revenue Growth YoY+3.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-2.8%
Net Margin-2.6%
Free Cash Flow-$18.9M
Return on Equity-3.5%
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 Netgear, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?