Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) currently trades at $357.05 with an enterprise value of $19.94B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Lumentum Holdings Inc. at 85/100 (Grade: A · High-Quality Compounder). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 28.4% vs. historical growth of 24.3% (Fairly Priced to Fundamentals).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test LITE'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: $357.05).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $343.55 -4% | $364.33 +2% | $388.56 +9% | $417.20 +17% | $451.57 +26% |
| 9.3% | $309.88 -13% | $326.24 -9% | $345.03 -3% | $366.83 +3% | $392.41 +10% |
| 10.0% | $282.22 -21% | $295.37 -17% | $310.28 -13% | $327.32 -8% | $346.99 -3% |
| 10.8% | $259.10 -27% | $269.86 -24% | $281.92 -21% | $295.54 -17% | $311.03 -13% |
| 11.5% | $239.51 -33% | $248.43 -30% | $258.34 -28% | $269.42 -25% | $281.88 -21% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (85/100 · Grade A)
Strong fundamentals, above-average cash generation, and robust competitive positioning.
Elite deferred revenue float; FCF exceeds operating income by >20%
Elevated equity dilution; SBC consumes substantial operating cash flow
Elite Tier-1 SaaS compounder with high gross margin and superior Rule of 40
Zero-debt fortress balance sheet with abundant net cash liquidity
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- High-grade cash conversion: FCF is 2045% of EBIT driven by upfront annual collections
- Top-quartile software unit economics: 77.4% gross margin and 46.8% Rule of 40 score
- Fortress capital structure: Zero debt and $1.62B in pure net cash
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
- Substantial SBC dilution drag: SBC is 18.8% of revenue ($512.7M)
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into LITE?
Market implies 28.4% annual revenue growth over next 5 years (47.1% dilution-adjusted), in line with company run-rate.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (18.8% of revenue) and annual share dilution (1.8%/yr). Accounting for both requires 47.1% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $357.05/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.73B | $2.73B | $3.39B | $4.21B | $5.24B | $6.51B | $8.09B |
| Gross Profit | $2.11B | $2.11B | $2.62B | $3.26B | $4.05B | $5.04B | $6.26B |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $30.0M | $30.0M | $37.3M | $46.3M | $57.6M | $71.6M | $89.0M |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $512.7M | $512.7M | $637.2M | $792.1M | $984.6M | $1.22B | $1.52B |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $613.6M | $613.6M | $762.7M | $948.0M | $1.18B | $1.46B | $1.82B |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $100.9M | $100.9M | $125.4M | $155.9M | $193.8M | $240.9M | $299.4M |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -29.8 + 0.81 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 80%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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lumentum Holdings Inc. | LITE | $24.82B | $2.73B | 77.4% | 22.5% | 46.8% | 18.8% | 8.5× |
| 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 | 8.5× | $23.19B | $24.82B | $357.05 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 6.8× | $18.55B | $20.18B | $290.31 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 5.5× | $15.08B | $16.70B | $240.25 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $13.63B | $15.26B | $219.53 | -41.2% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) Valuation
What is Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE)'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, Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) has a Base Case implied value of $310.28 per share (with a Bear Case of $138.10 and a Bull Case of $562.33), compared to its current price of $357.05. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Lumentum Holdings Inc. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 46.8%, combining a 24.3% revenue growth run-rate with a 22.5% TTM free cash flow margin on $2.73B 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 LITE stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $357.05 per share (Enterprise Value of $23.19B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 28.4%, compared to Lumentum Holdings Inc.'s historical CAGR of 24.3%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Fairly Priced to Fundamentals".
How does Lumentum Holdings Inc. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 85/100 (Grade A — High-Quality 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 Lumentum Holdings Inc. (LITE)'s valuation?
Lumentum Holdings Inc. recorded $512.7M in TTM stock-based compensation (18.8% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Lumentum Holdings Inc.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is 0.4%, scoring 10/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
