Forensic Analysis · Semiconductors · as of Aug 11, 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
6
Forensic signals
-374.3
P / E (ttm)
-7.3%
ROE
$12.5B
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). 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. 6 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 and steady — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+8.4%/yr
FY2022–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +38% over the last 4 years to FY2026 (+8.4%/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 ~8.4% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~28%.
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. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 7.1% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
stopped
FY2022→FY2025
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $50M of buybacks + dividends in FY2022, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.05B
Revenue Growth YoY+15.5%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+10.0%
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?
Goodwill impairments.Took $848M of goodwill writedowns across 3 years (FY2023 ($756M), FY2025 ($7M), FY2026 ($85M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.