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NVEC, NVE Corporation

In General NVE Corporation, referred to as NVE, we, us, or our, develops and sells devices that use spintronics, a nanotechnology that relies on electron spin rather than electron charge to acquire, store, and transmit information.

We manufacture high-performance spintronic products including sensors and couplers that are used to acquire and transmit data.

We have focused on three applications for our spintronic technology: magnetic sensors, couplers, and memories.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

NVEC · NVE Corporation

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026

$26M

+1.8% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $26M 5-yr avg $29M

Gross margin 79% 5-yr avg 79%

Operating margin 60.5% 5-yr avg 62.4%

ROIC 24% 5-yr avg 27%

Owner-earnings margin 55% 5-yr avg 52%

Free cash flow margin 55% 5-yr avg 52%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 79% and operating margin about 61% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. That margin has stayed fairly steady relative to where it runs (60%–67% over the years), so unit growth and cost discipline, not a moving line, are the lever. Inventory runs near 17% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. Read this kind of business on process leadership and the capex cycle. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has run high across the record (median 21%, above 15% in 9 of 10 years), though buybacks and expensed R&D and brands shrink the capital base, so the figure overstates the underlying economics. The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 52% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Whether these returns reflect real pricing power or an accounting artifact is the judgment the 10-K is for.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$28M	$30M	$26M	$25M	$21M	$27M	$38M	$30M	$26M	$26M	$26M	RevenueRevenue
79%	79%	80%	81%	81%	77%	79%	77%	84%	79%	79%	Gross marginGross mgn
5%	5%	5%	5%	6%	5%	—	—	—	—	5%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
12%	12%	16%	15%	15%	11%	7%	9%	14%	12%	12%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$17M	$18M	$16M	$16M	$13M	$16M	$26M	$19M	$16M	$16M	$16M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
61.6%	61.8%	60.2%	61.1%	59.6%	60.5%	67.0%	62.1%	61.8%	60.5%	60.5%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$13M	$14M	$15M	$15M	$12M	$15M	$23M	$17M	$15M	$15M	$15M	Net incomeNet inc.
32%	30%	18%	16%	18%	17%	16%	16%	16%	15%	15%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$12M	$15M	$14M	$16M	$13M	$13M	$19M	$18M	$14M	$17M	$17M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$1M	$980K	$705K	$550K	$543K	$425K	$197K	$308K	$324K	$460K	$460K	DepreciationDeprec.
($2M)	$219K	($1M)	$771K	$1M	($3M)	($4M)	$815K	($1M)	$999K	$934K	Working capital & otherWC & other
$520K	$605K	$68K	$52K	$63K	$485K	$936K	$17K	$1M	$2M	$2M	CapexCapex
1.8%	2.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%	1.8%	2.4%	0.1%	4.9%	8.3%	8.3%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$12M	$15M	$14M	$16M	$13M	$12M	$18M	$18M	$13M	$14M	$14M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
41.9%	48.7%	53.5%	62.3%	62.3%	44.5%	47.5%	61.2%	50.4%	54.9%	54.9%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$12M	$15M	$14M	$16M	$13M	$12M	$18M	$18M	$13M	$14M	$14M	Free cash flowFCF
41.9%	48.7%	53.5%	62.3%	62.3%	44.5%	47.5%	61.2%	50.4%	54.9%	54.9%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	$19M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	—	—	$687K	$91K	$164K	$21K	$0	—	—	—	BuybacksBuybacks
14%	16%	17%	19%	17%	25%	33%	28%	25%	24%	24%	ROICROIC
14%	16%	18%	19%	16%	22%	34%	26%	24%	26%	26%	Return on equityROE
−7%	−6%	−6%	−6%	−11%	−7%	5%	−3%	−7%	−7%	−7%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$85M	$78M	$74M	$71M	$65M	$56M	$53M	$53M	$48M	$44M	$44M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$3M	$3M	$3M	$3M	$2M	$5M	$7M	$3M	$4M	$3M	$3M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$3M	$4M	$4M	$4M	$4M	$5M	$6M	$7M	$7M	$7M	$7M	InventoryInvent.
$376K	$415K	$375K	$187K	$337K	$944K	$282K	$127K	$215K	$279K	$279K	Accounts payablePayables
$6M	$6M	$7M	$6M	$6M	$9M	$13M	$10M	$11M	$10M	$10M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$35M	$33M	$27M	$34M	$24M	$42M	$31M	$33M	$33M	$32M	$32M	Current assetsCur. assets
$1M	$990K	$836K	$796K	$1M	$2M	$2M	$1M	$1M	$1M	$1M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
32.1×	33.0×	32.8×	43.2×	23.7×	16.9×	16.8×	32.0×	28.4×	28.2×	28.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$94M	$87M	$84M	$79M	$73M	$67M	$69M	$67M	$64M	$60M	$60M	Total assetsAssets
($85M)	($78M)	($74M)	($71M)	($65M)	($56M)	($53M)	($53M)	($48M)	($44M)	($44M)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
$93M	$86M	$83M	$78M	$71M	$65M	$67M	$66M	$62M	$58M	$58M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
0.1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	—	—	—	—	0.2%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
4.8M	4.8M	4.9M	4.8M	4.8M	4.8M	4.8M	4.8M	4.8M	4.8M	4.8M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$5.85	$6.16	$5.46	$5.24	$4.42	$5.58	$7.92	$6.16	$5.35	$5.44	$5.44	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$2.68	$2.87	$2.99	$3.00	$2.42	$3.00	$4.70	$3.54	$3.11	$3.14	$3.14	EPS (diluted)EPS
$2.45	$3.00	$2.92	$3.27	$2.75	$2.49	$3.76	$3.77	$2.70	$2.99	$2.99	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$2.45	$3.00	$2.92	$3.27	$2.75	$2.49	$3.76	$3.77	$2.70	$2.99	$2.99	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$4.00	$4.00	$3.99	$4.00	$4.00	$4.00	$4.00	$3.99	$4.00	$4.00	$4.00	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.11	$0.12	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01	$0.10	$0.19	$0.00	$0.26	$0.45	$0.45	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$19.16	$17.84	$17.07	$16.09	$14.66	$13.35	$13.88	$13.55	$12.87	$12.04	$12.04	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	−0.8%/yr	+4.2%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+2.2%/yr	+1.7%/yr
EPS	+1.8%/yr	+5.4%/yr
Dividends / share	−0.0%/yr	−0.0%/yr
Capital spending / share	+17.3%/yr	+103.5%/yr
Book value / share	−5.0%/yr	−3.9%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

5Mpeak FY2019

ROIC

24%low FY2017

Gross margin

79%low FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$14Mowner earningsvs.$15Mnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2022–FY2026cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2026 the business reported $15M of profit but $14M of owner earnings: $730K less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$15M

Owner earnings$14M · 55% of revenue

	FY2026	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022
Reported net income	$15M	$15M	$17M	$23M	$15M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$460K	+$324K	+$308K	+$197K	+$425K
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	—	—	—	—	+$82K
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$999K	−$1M	+$815K	−$4M	−$3M
Cash from operations	$17M	$14M	$18M	$19M	$13M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$2M	−$1M	−$17K	−$936K	−$485K
Owner earnings	$14M	$13M	$18M	$18M	$12M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	55%	50%	61%	47%	45%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? —

No meaningful interest burden

Little or no interest expense reported

What this means
Little or no interest expense reported, the business isn't leaning on lenders to operate.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$20M

Net cash, debt-free

Cash $2M + ST investments $18M − debt $0

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $20M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. It also holds $24M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at net cash of $44M. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 491d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 47 + DIO 462 − DPO 18 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital —

Not enough data

Industry peers: median -23%

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Owner-earnings margin 50%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 42%–62%; latest $14M = operating cash $17M − maintenance capex $2M

Industry peers: median -10%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 55% of revenue this year, a 50% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $82K of SBC) leaves $14M.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.10×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $17M ÷ net income $15M

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 134%

Returned more than it generated

Dividends + buybacks $19M ÷ Owner Earnings $14M

What this means
The company returned more than it generated: against $14M of Owner Earnings, $19M (134%) went back to shareholders, $19M dividends, $0 buybacks — the excess came from the balance sheet or borrowing, not the year's operations. Sustained, that pattern draws down cash or adds debt; the net-debt line above shows where it stands.
Investing or harvesting? 4.76×

Expanding

Capex $2M ÷ depreciation $460K

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 3 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Miss

Revenue ≥ $2B · $26M

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Pass

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 28.21×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Earnings stability Pass

A profit every year (10-yr record) · no losses

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Near

Earnings +33% over the record · +15%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $3.27/share (latest year $3.14), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $12.04/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 10 of 10

What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
Operating margin 61% → 61% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The filing attributes gains to higher prices, but the margin in the record has not followed — the claim outruns the result here.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about 61% early, 61% lately, median 61%.
Owner earnings growth +0%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 0% a year over the record.
Worst year 2021 · 59.6% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +0.0%/yr

What this means
Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.
Dividend record paid

What this means
Paid a dividend in 10 of the years on record.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Framed as a capability

The filing positions AI as something the company uses, not something it fears.

“Our major markets for standard sensors are the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) for factory automation.”

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$32M

Cash & short-term investments$20M
Receivables$3M
Inventory$7M
Other current assets$2M

Current liabilities$1M

Accounts payable$279K
Other current liabilities$863K

Current ratio28.21×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio22.00×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio17.38×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$31Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+335.0%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters18.6× → 28.2×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$58Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value$30MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$906K$906K of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$36Kcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $152M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$6M · 4%
Dividends$193M · 127%
Buybacks$963K · 1%

Returned to owners$194M
134% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $193M as dividends and $963K as buybacks.
Source of funding−$49M
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $49M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: cash and short-term investments drew down $8M, and the long-term investment portfolio drew down $33M.
Average price paid for buybacks$47.38
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 0M shares were bought for $184K, about $47.38 each.
Net change in share count0.0%
The diluted count barely moved (5M to 5M): buybacks roughly offset the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$4.00/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 0% a year. It was never cut over the span.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

Insider ownership2.1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$82K
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 0% of revenue, equal to 1% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why NVE Corporation is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2017–2026.

1 of the 4 tests turned up something to look into; the other 3 came back clean.

Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?24% → 40% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $7M to $10M while revenue grew −7%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (24% of revenue then, 40% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did the share count rise anyway?
Did reported profit become cash?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

Peers, Semiconductors

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
AXTIAXT Inc	$88M	32%	6.0%	4%	-16%
AMBQAmbiq Micro Inc.	$73M	44%	-54.5%	-141%	—
AIPArteris Inc.	$71M	90%	-56.0%	—	-3%
MPTIM-tron Industries Inc.	$54M	—	10.4%	19%	9%
NVTSNavitas Semiconductor Corporation	$46M	33%	-196.7%	-41%	-108%
KOPNKopin Corporation	$39M	35%	-65.8%	-70%	-40%
LPTHLightPath Technologies Inc.	$37M	35%	-4.8%	-5%	-0%
NVECNVE Corporation	$26M	79%	61.3%	21%	52%
Group median	—	35%	-29.7%	-5%	-3%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what NVE Corporation has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, NVE Corporation earns about $14M on its 52.0% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 54.9% margin runs in line with that. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($14M) Net of stock comp (−$65K)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26−2%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’26+0%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $14M on 5M shares outstanding, per the 10-K cover, as of 2026-03-31; net cash $44M. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh NVEC against another business →

The owners of NVEC: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "NVE Corporation (NVEC), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/NVEC, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← NVDA its page in the Manual NVEE →

Industry order: ← NVDA the Semiconductors chapter NVTS →