Coherent Corp. drew 11 news stories in the 24 hours to 5 November, against a usual 0.9 a day. The filings show growth accelerating, but the cash flow behind that growth is the detail a reader should weigh most.
Growth has picked up
Revenue over the twelve months to Q1 2027 was $7.9 billion, up 30.8% on the year before. That growth rate was 8.3 percentage points faster than the rate a quarter earlier, above 84% of the company's own past readings. Reports on 4 November described the quarter as beating sales expectations, with AI data centre demand named as a key driver.
Profit is outgrowing sales. Net income over the twelve months reached $963.3 million, up 285.6%, while revenue grew 30.8%. The trailing net margin stood at 12.2% and the trailing gross margin at 38.2%. Reports on 5 November said the company raised its full-year targets after the earnings beat, a connection the material draws to the profit-growth figures above.
Dilution is working against shareholders. The average diluted share count rose 20.9% over the year, so each share's claim on that $963.3 million of net income grows more slowly than the profit itself.
The cash flow statement tells a different story. Operating cash flow over the twelve months was −$59.1 million, and capital spending was $1.8 billion, or 22.4% of revenue. Free cash flow, the difference, was −$1.8 billion, a margin of −23.2% of revenue, down 24.4 percentage points from a year earlier.
The free-cash-flow margin of −23.2% is below every past reading in the company's own record, which ran from −14.4% to 17.0%
The free-cash-flow margin of −23.2% sits below every one of the company's past quarterly readings, which have ranged from −14.4% to 17.0%. Revenue growth of 30.8% is higher than 84% of past readings (−8.8% to 99.3%). The company is producing revenue growth above most of its measured history while its cash burn is the deepest in that same period.
What the filings cannot tell you at Coherent
Our figures run to Q1 2027, from the company's own filings; they cannot confirm, explain or rule out anything in the reports. The revenue growth and profit figures above bear on the earnings-beat and guidance-raise stories, and the cash flow and dilution figures bear on the analyst fair-value discussions, but the filings do not identify which product lines or customers drove the AI data centre demand cited in the coverage.
