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
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-7.4%
ROE
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 (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.
Semtech Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.6% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -72.6%. After-tax operating profit was ($746M) in FY2024 and $26M in FY2026, with operating income at -108.7% of revenue in FY2024, 5.5% in FY2025 and 3.1% in FY2026. The capital base behind it went from $1.0B in FY2024 to $985M in FY2026 (-4%), while the revenue it carried went from $869M to $1.0B. FY2024's operating profit carried a $756M goodwill write-off, a $40M asset write-down and a $25M restructuring charge that took about 63.0 points off that year's return, and FY2026's carried a $85M goodwill write-off, a $4M restructuring charge and a $2M asset write-down that took about 7.3 points off the latest; so, net of each other, the two charges add about 55.7 points to the +75.2-point change across FY2024–FY2026. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+17.4%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +38% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+17.4%/yr). The count is growing — 64.1M shares in FY2024, 88.4M in FY2026: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~17.4% 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 FY2024 has been diluted ~27%.
5% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.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 17.4% a year across FY2024–FY2026 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. 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.
$848M
FY2024–FY2026
Goodwill impairments.Took $848M of goodwill writedowns across 3 years (FY2024 ($756M), FY2025 ($7M), FY2026 ($85M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.05B
Revenue Growth YoY+15.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+9.9%
Net Margin-3.8%
Free Cash Flow$171.4M
Return on Equity-7.4%
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?