Forensic Analysis · Communication Services / Telecom · as of Sep 25, 2026
Viasat Inc (VSAT)
A forensic read on Viasat Inc 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
1.8
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
-293.8
P / E (ttm)
-0.7%
ROE
$10.1B
Market cap
0.00%
Dividend yield
2.7%
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.
Viasat Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.8, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
0.6%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 0.6% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -5.3%. After-tax operating profit was ($703M) in FY2024 and $70M in FY2026, with operating income at -20.8% of revenue in FY2024, -2.2% in FY2025 and 2.3% in FY2026. The capital base behind it barely moved across FY2024–FY2026 ($13.2B to $12.2B, -7%), so there has been little new capital for that return to be earned on.
+7.2%/yr
FY2024–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +15% over the last 2 years to FY2026 (+7.2%/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 ~7.2% 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 ~13%.
1.7% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 1.7% of revenue in FY2026 — about $0.60 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 7.3% a year, 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.64B
Revenue Growth YoY+2.7%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+4.1%
Net Margin-0.7%
Return on Equity-0.7%
Debt / Equity1.41x
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 Viasat Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?