Coherent, Inc. (COHR) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Coherent, Inc. (COHR) currently trades at $186.36 with an enterprise value of $26.93B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Coherent, Inc. at 88/100 (Grade: A+ · Elite SaaS Compounder). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 26.6% vs. historical growth of 25.7% (Fairly Priced to Fundamentals).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Coherent, Inc. (COHR) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Coherent, Inc. (COHR) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test COHR's 5-year growth, target FCF margin, WACC, terminal methodology, and SBC/dilution friction in real time.
Split between 5-Year Explicit Cash Flows and Discounted Terminal Value
2D Institutional Valuation Sensitivity Heatmap
Implied share price & upside/downside spread across 25 valuation states (Current Price: $186.36).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $200.51 +8% | $213.11 +14% | $227.81 +22% | $245.19 +32% | $266.04 +43% |
| 9.3% | $180.09 -3% | $190.02 +2% | $201.42 +8% | $214.64 +15% | $230.16 +24% |
| 10.0% | $163.32 -12% | $171.30 -8% | $180.35 -3% | $190.69 +2% | $202.61 +9% |
| 10.8% | $149.31 -20% | $155.83 -16% | $163.15 -12% | $171.41 -8% | $180.81 -3% |
| 11.5% | $137.43 -26% | $142.84 -23% | $148.86 -20% | $155.58 -17% | $163.14 -12% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (88/100 · Grade A+)
Exceptional unit economics, disciplined equity dilution, and fortress balance sheet.
Elite deferred revenue float; FCF exceeds operating income by >20%
Standard software SBC dilution; modest equity transfer to employees
Elite Tier-1 SaaS compounder with high gross margin and superior Rule of 40
Positive net cash cushion; self-funding operations with zero insolvency risk
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- High-grade cash conversion: FCF is 181% of EBIT driven by upfront annual collections
- Top-quartile software unit economics: 78.6% gross margin and 50.7% Rule of 40 score
- Net cash positive: $1.09B balance sheet buffer
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into COHR?
Market implies 26.6% annual revenue growth over next 5 years (36.9% dilution-adjusted), in line with company run-rate.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (11.8% of revenue) and annual share dilution (1.8%/yr). Accounting for both requires 36.9% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $186.36/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Coherent, Inc. (COHR) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.15B | $3.15B | $3.96B | $4.97B | $6.25B | $7.86B | $9.88B |
| Gross Profit | $2.47B | $2.47B | $3.11B | $3.91B | $4.91B | $6.18B | $7.76B |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $434.4M | $434.4M | $546.0M | $686.3M | $862.7M | $1.08B | $1.36B |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $371.4M | $371.4M | $466.9M | $586.9M | $737.7M | $927.3M | $1.17B |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $786.9M | $786.9M | $989.1M | $1.24B | $1.56B | $1.96B | $2.47B |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $415.5M | $415.5M | $522.3M | $656.5M | $825.2M | $1.04B | $1.30B |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -31.0 + 0.82 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 78%Stocks below the gold regression line trade at a discount relative to their Rule of 40 compounding efficiency.
| Company | Ticker | Market Cap | TTM Revenue | Gross Margin | FCF Margin | Rule of 40 | SBC % Rev | EV / Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coherent, Inc. | COHR | $28.96B | $3.15B | 78.6% | 25.0% | 50.7% | 11.8% | 8.8× |
| ServiceNow | NOW | $152.61B | $10.98B | 79.2% | 31.1% | 54.2% | 15.9% | 13.9× |
| Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $50.35B | $8.00B | 75.0% | 27.4% | 43.9% | 19.0% | 6.4× |
| Salesforce | CRM | $217.10B | $37.90B | 77.2% | 32.8% | 42.8% | 8.4% | 5.8× |
| Datadog | DDOG | $46.05B | $2.68B | 80.8% | 31.1% | 57.7% | 21.3% | 17.4× |
| Snowflake Inc. | SNOW | $71.79B | $3.63B | 66.5% | 25.2% | 57.7% | 40.8% | 20.0× |
| Hubspot | HUBS | $19.89B | $2.63B | 85.0% | 21.3% | 52.7% | 19.2% | 7.7× |
| Peer Cohort Median Benchmark (N=6) | 78.2% | 29.2% | 53.5% | 19.1% | 10.8× | |||
EV / Revenue Multiple Compression Stress Test
| Multiple Scenario | EV / Revenue | Implied Enterprise Value | Implied Equity Value | Implied Share Price | Delta vs Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Multiple | 8.9× | $27.87B | $28.96B | $186.36 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 7.1× | $22.29B | $23.38B | $150.49 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 5.8× | $18.11B | $19.21B | $123.59 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $15.74B | $16.83B | $108.31 | -43.5% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Coherent, Inc. (COHR) Valuation
What is Coherent, Inc. (COHR)'s intrinsic DCF valuation and implied share price?
Based on audited SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and a 5-year 3-statement discounted cash flow (DCF) model, Coherent, Inc. (COHR) has a Base Case implied value of $180.35 per share (with a Bear Case of $74.64 and a Bull Case of $337.59), compared to its current price of $186.36. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Coherent, Inc. (COHR)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Coherent, Inc. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 50.7%, combining a 25.7% revenue growth run-rate with a 25.0% TTM free cash flow margin on $3.15B in trailing twelve-month revenue. In the Software & Cloud Services peer cohort, the median Rule of 40 benchmark is 53.5%.
What revenue growth rate is priced into COHR stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $186.36 per share (Enterprise Value of $27.87B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 26.6%, compared to Coherent, Inc.'s historical CAGR of 25.7%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Fairly Priced to Fundamentals".
How does Coherent, Inc. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Coherent, Inc. (COHR) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 88/100 (Grade A+ — Elite SaaS Compounder). Across its Software & Cloud Services peer group (NOW, WDAY, CRM, DDOG, SNOW), the cohort trades at a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 10.8× and a median gross margin of 78.2%.
How does Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) impact Coherent, Inc. (COHR)'s valuation?
Coherent, Inc. recorded $371.4M in TTM stock-based compensation (11.8% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Coherent, Inc.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is 1.4%, scoring 16/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
