Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 25, 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.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
2.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-15.0
P / E (ttm)
-3.6%
ROE
$604M
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
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 (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.
Netgear, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.8, 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
-7.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -7.2% in the latest fiscal year, against -6.5% in FY2023, having run between -7.2% and 2.7% 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 barely moved across FY2023–FY2025 ($406M to $376M, -7%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on. 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 1.6 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges take about 0.5 points off the -0.7-point change across FY2023–FY2025.
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.
+12.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +12.3% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by payables paid down 25% against -9% in cost of sales and inventory up +9% against -9% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 7% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 12.3%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
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-3.6%
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?