Kulicke & Soffa Industries
Through the investors’ lenses
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 1/3
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | $984.00k | positive | ✓ |
| Return on equity | 0.0% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Operating margin | -0.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
Passes 1 of 3. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Terry Smith 0/1
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Operating margin | -0.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Terry Smith has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Charlie Munger 0/2
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Return on equity | 0.0% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Operating margin | -0.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 2. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Chuck Akre 0/2
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | 0.0% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Return on equity, sustained | 3 of 10 | 8 of 10 above median | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 2. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Philip Fisher 0/3
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | -0.5% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
| Net margin | 0.0% | median 10.2% | ✗ |
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Operating margin, held or improving | -0.5% | 10-yr median 8.6% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 3. To be clear: Philip Fisher has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Walter Schloss 1/1
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 4.79x | median 1.25x | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Walter Schloss has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Benjamin Graham 1/2
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 4.79x | 2.00x published | ✓ |
| Long-term debt to working capital | — | 1.00x published | — |
| Positive earnings, ten years running | 1 yr | 10 published | ✗ |
Passes 1 of 2. To be clear: Benjamin Graham has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Peter Lynch 0/1
| Measure | KLIC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Net margin | 0.0% | median 10.2% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Peter Lynch has never said anything about Kulicke & Soffa Industries. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | 47.6% | whyBefore capital spending. |
| Free cash flow | 56.1% | whyAfter maintaining the business. |
No GAAP earnings figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 8.5 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 9 / 100 — Not covered. ? Peer standing 5/50Direction 4/30Stability 0/20
Against its own history: 56.1% this year vs 32.6% median over the prior 5. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.
Free cash flow payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-10-04 | 56.1% |
| 2024-09-28 | 296.6% |
| 2023-09-30 | 32.6% |
| 2022-10-01 | 10.7% |
| 2021-10-02 | 12.1% |
| 2020-10-03 | 36.6% |
10% of the 42 technology here pay out more — at the demanding end.
The arithmetic
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $54.1m ÷ operating cash flow $114m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $54.1m ÷ (operating cash flow $114m − capex $17.2m)
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2025-11-20 · accession 0000056978-25-000081
All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.
Caveats on this company
- basis discarded as outside the sane band (distribution far larger than the year's income — usually a special dividend or a return of capital, not a payout ratio): earnings
Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.
What the free cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated not covered · when it files.
When this changes
Every figure above is recomputed whenever Kulicke & Soffa Industries files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.