Owner Scorecard


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CGON, CG Oncology Inc.

Biotechnology consumer brand UnprofitableNet current asset value

Revenue is Commercial and Development Revenue (80%) and License and Collaboration Revenue (20%).

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
CGON · CG Oncology Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$4M
+254.7% YoY
Vital signs · TTM
Cash & investments $1.1B
Cash burn · annual $160M
Runway 6.7 yrs

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

What it is
A pharmaceutical business, where patents grant a temporary monopoly the pipeline must keep refilling.
Situation
Unprofitable. No meaningful revenue yet; the record is the cash on hand against the burn. Net current asset value. Current assets alone exceed every liability combined, and the surplus is most of the balance sheet: the shape Graham called a net-net.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has run around −10067% through the cycle, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. Stock-based pay runs about 749% of sales, a real and recurring claim on owners that the GAAP margin understates. Read this kind of business on the pipeline against the patent cliff, and pricing. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.

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

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Commercial And Development Revenue is 80% of revenue, with License And Collaboration Revenue the other meaningful line at 20%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025
  • Commercial And Development Revenue80%$3M
  • License And Collaboration Revenue20%$806K

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2023–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$204K$1M$4M$5MRevenueRevenue
n/mn/mn/mn/mSG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
n/mn/mn/mn/mR&D / revenueR&D/rev
($55M)($115M)($191M)($215M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
n/mn/mn/mn/mOperating marginOp. mgn
($49M)($88M)($161M)($187M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
($46M)($79M)($132M)($160M)Operating cash flowOp. cash
$17K$32K$1M$2MDepreciationDeprec.
$1M($2M)$528K($4M)Working capital & otherWC & other
$234K$134K$422KCapexCapex
20.5%3.3%8.3%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($79M)($132M)($160M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
n/mn/mn/mOwner earnings marginOE mgn
($79M)($132M)($160M)Free cash flowFCF
n/mn/mn/mFree cash flow marginFCF mgn
$22M$22MAcquisitionsAcquis.
-19%-21%-16%ROICROIC
-12%-21%-17%Return on equityROE
−12%−21%−17%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$188M$742M$742M$1.1BCash & investmentsCash+inv
$0$688K$1MReceivablesReceiv.
$0$2M$1MInventoryInvent.
$3M$7M$6M$8MAccounts payablePayables
($7M)($3M)($5M)Operating working capitalOper. WC
$194M$754M$759M$1.1BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$14M$21M$31M$35MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
13.6×35.3×24.6×31.3×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$0$10M$10MGoodwillGoodwill
$199M$755M$792M$1.1BTotal assetsAssets
$0$3M$3MTotal debtDebt
($742M)($739M)($1.1B)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
($123M)$733M$753M$1.1BShareholders’ equityEquity
749.0%n/m660.3%552.1%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
4.3M62.5M77.3M84.5MShares out (diluted)Shares
$0.05$0.02$0.05$0.06Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-11.22$-1.41$-2.08$-2.21EPS (diluted)EPS
$-1.26$-1.71$-1.90Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.26$-1.71$-1.90Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.00$0.00$0.00Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-28.42$11.73$9.74$12.92Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×14.43 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The record, charted

FY2023–2025

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

Share count
77Mpeak FY2025

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 2025 the business turned a $161M loss into ($132M) of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024
Reported net income($161M)($88M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$1M+$32K
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$27M+$11M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$528K−$2M
Cash from operations($132M)($79M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$134K−$32K
Owner earnings($132M)($79M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$202K
Free cash flow($132M)($79M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-3279%-6914%

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 . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $27M), owner earnings is nearer ($159M).

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

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • 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.

  • Net cash
    Cash $32M + ST investments $710M − debt $3M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $739M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Not enough data
    What this means

    The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

  • Below average
    NOPAT ($151M) ÷ invested capital $723M (debt + equity − cash)
    Industry peers: median -91%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Consumes cash
    Owner earnings ($132M) = operating cash ($132M) − maintenance capex $134K
    Industry peers: median -970%
    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 -3279% of revenue this year. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $27M of SBC) leaves ($159M).

  • Loss, and burning cash
    Net income ($161M) · cash from operations ($132M)
    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did not.

How is the cash used?

  • Not enough data
    What this means

    The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.09×
    Harvesting
    Capex $134K ÷ depreciation $1M
    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 · 2 of 3 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 · $4M
    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× · 24.63×
    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.

  • Conservative debt Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $3M vs $729M WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • 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 $-1.12/share (latest year $-1.83), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $8.53/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.

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.

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.

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 the latest quarter, 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$1.1B
  • Cash & short-term investments$1.1B
  • Receivables$1M
  • Inventory$1M
  • Other current assets$23M
Current liabilities$35M
  • Accounts payable$8M
  • Other current liabilities$27M
Current ratio31.30×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio31.25×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio30.56×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$1.1Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Cash runway6.7 yrsthe business is consuming cash; this is how long the cash on hand lasts at that rate
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+1982.7%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters47.6× → 31.3×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$1.1Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$1.1BGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$8M$5M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

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 ownership4.8%

    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$27M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 660% of revenue. 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.

Peers, Biotechnology

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.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
ACOGAlpha Cognition Inc.$10M-221.7%-200%
TSHATaysha Gene Therapies Inc.$10M-1114.1%-970%
SLDBSolid Biosciences Inc.$8M-2214.1%-152%-1945%
DBVTDBV Technologies S.A.$6M-1727.6%-1206%-1493%
OCGNOcugen Inc.$4M-1425.7%-1295%
CPHIChina Pharma Holdings Inc.$4M9%-65.3%-29%-2%
CGONCG Oncology Inc.$4M-10067.3%-21%-3279%
CRSPCRISPR Therapeutics AG$4M-1284.9%-27%-715%
Group median-1355.3%-29%-1132%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

CG Oncology Inc. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

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The assumptions

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach
Margin the price demands
Owner-earnings margin today−3164%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "CG Oncology Inc. (CGON), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CGON, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CGNX its page in the Manual CHCO →

Industry order: ← CGEN the Biotechnology chapter CLDX →