Forensic Analysis · Machinery & Fabricated Metal Products · as of Nov 10, 2026
Innovate Corp. (VATE)
A forensic read on Innovate Corp. 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
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
12.5%
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.
Innovate Corp. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.0%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.0% in the latest fiscal year, against 3.6% in FY2023, having run between 3.6% and 5.7% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was $21M in FY2023 and $23M in FY2025, with operating income at 1.9% of revenue in FY2023, 3.6% in FY2024 and 2.3% in FY2025. The capital base behind it came down -22% across FY2023–FY2025, from $580M to $453M, so this return is struck on a smaller base than it started on. $237M of the $453M base at FY2025 is construction in progress (52.3%) — paid for, not yet in service, and so in the denominator of this return while it cannot be in the profit above it.
+30.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +69% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+30.1%/yr). The count is growing — 7.8M shares in FY2023, 13.2M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~30.1% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~41%.
0.2% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.2% of revenue and 2% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.20 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 30.1% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. 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.
-60%
FY2023→FY2024
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~60% in FY2024 (from FY2023). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.25B
Revenue Growth YoY+12.5%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-6.4%
Net Margin-4.9%
Free Cash Flow$146.1M
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 Innovate Corp.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?