Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 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.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-6.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
12.5%
Revenue growth
The financial-health reading above compares this company's equity at BOOK value, not at what the market currently pays for it — this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data. Treat it as a rough read, not the final word.
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.
Innovate Corp. earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -6.0, placing it in the Distress zone (based on book value, not market value, since this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data — treat this zone as a rough read, not the final word). 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.9% in the latest fiscal year and rising from 2% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
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. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 20.3% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.
n/m (stock split)
FY2022–FY2025
Share count (stock split).Diluted share count changed -83% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2023 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw -44.5%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.
$47M
FY2019–FY2019
Goodwill impairments.Took $47M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2019 ($47M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-99%
FY2013→FY2014
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~99% in FY2014 (from FY2013) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies. Measured on total dividend dollars rather than per share: the reported share count steps sharply around FY2023, a stock-split seam between filing vintages rather than a change in the payout, and a split leaves the dollars paid untouched.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.25B
Revenue Growth YoY+12.5%
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?