Forensic Analysis · Semiconductors · as of Sep 25, 2026
Semtech Corp (SMTC)
A forensic read on Semtech Corp 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
13.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
51.4
P / E (ttm)
-7.3%
ROE
$15.8B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
15.5%
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 (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.
Semtech Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 13.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.7%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.7% in the latest fiscal year, close to the 3.8% of FY2025. After-tax operating profit was $39M in FY2025 and $26M in FY2026, with operating income at 5.5% of revenue in FY2025 and 3.1% in FY2026. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2025–FY2026 ($1.0B to $939M, -9%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on. FY2026's operating profit carried a $85M goodwill write-off, a $4M restructuring charge and a $2M asset write-down that alone took about 7.6 points off that year's return, so more than the whole 1.1-point fall across FY2025–FY2026 is that charge landing in the latest year rather than the capital earning less.
+23.4%/yr
FY2025–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +23% over the last 1 year to FY2026 (+23.4%/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 ~23.4% 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 FY2025 has been diluted ~19%.
141d
FY2025→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 132 to 141 FY2025→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +20% vs +12% in cost of sales). Inventory is building a little faster than sales — watch for markdowns. There's no FY2024 figure on file for inventory, so FY2025 has no opening balance to average against — both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, since averaging only the current year would make the move track balance-sheet growth rather than the business.
5% of rev
FY2026
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.05B
Revenue Growth YoY+15.5%
Net Margin-3.8%
Free Cash Flow$171.4M
Return on Equity-7.3%
Debt / Equity0.89x
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 Semtech Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Stock-based compensation ran 5% of revenue and 34% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.65 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 23.4% a year, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. 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.
$92M
FY2025–FY2026
Goodwill impairments.Took $92M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2025 ($7M), FY2026 ($85M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.