← All companies ← ETN Manual ETR → ← ESPR Pharmaceuticals EVMN →

ETON, Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Pharmaceuticals consumer brand UnprofitableDistress / turnaround

Eton Eton is an innovative pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing treatments for rare diseases.

We currently have eight commercial rare disease products: INCRELEX , ALKINDI SPRINKLE , KHINDIVI TM , GALZIN , PKU GOLIKE , Carglumic Acid, Betaine Anhydrous, and Nitisinone.

We have five additional product candidates in late-stage development: ET-600, Amglidia , ET-700, ET-800 and ZENEO hydrocortisone autoinjector.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

ETON · Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025

$80M

+104.9% YoY · 360% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $87M 5-yr avg $39M

Gross margin 55% 5-yr avg 62%

Operating margin 2.3% 5-yr avg −11.4%

Owner-earnings margin 18% 5-yr avg 8%

Free cash flow margin 18% 5-yr avg 8%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

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

Situation: Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run around −6.8% through the cycle on a 60% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. Inventory runs near 19% 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 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.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −108%, above 15% in 0 of 6 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

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, 2019–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
								Income statement
$959K	$39K	$22M	$21M	$32M	$39M	$80M	$87M	RevenueRevenue
53%	—	—	67%	67%	60%	53%	55%	Gross marginGross mgn
787%	n/m	65%	87%	60%	58%	45%	43%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
n/m	n/m	29%	19%	10%	8%	10%	10%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($19M)	($27M)	($1M)	($8M)	($1M)	($3M)	($844K)	$2M	Operating incomeOp. inc.
n/m	n/m	−6.8%	−38.9%	−3.8%	−6.7%	−1.1%	2.3%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($18M)	($28M)	($2M)	($9M)	($936K)	($4M)	($5M)	($1M)	Net incomeNet inc.
								Cash flow & returns
($18M)	($22M)	($5M)	$5M	$7M	$969K	$11M	$16M	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$283K	$347K	$155K	$66K	$901K	$1M	$4M	$4M	DepreciationDeprec.
($2M)	$3M	($6M)	$10M	$4M	$481K	$6M	$7M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$1M	$50K	$9K	$38K	$0	$26K	$333K	$408K	CapexCapex
114.3%	128.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.5%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($18M)	($22M)	($5M)	$5M	$7M	$943K	$10M	$15M	Owner earningsOwner earn.
n/m	n/m	−21.7%	22.5%	21.5%	2.4%	12.7%	17.8%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($19M)	($22M)	($5M)	$5M	$7M	$943K	$10M	$15M	Free cash flowFCF
n/m	n/m	−21.7%	22.5%	21.5%	2.4%	12.7%	17.8%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	—	$0	$0	$30M	$0	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
-486%	-747%	-12%	-205%	—	-5%	-2%	—	ROICROIC
-174%	-159%	-11%	-69%	-6%	-16%	-18%	-5%	Return on equityROE
−174%	−159%	−11%	−69%	−6%	−16%	−18%	−5%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
								Balance sheet
$12M	$21M	$14M	$16M	$21M	$15M	$26M	$20M	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$473K	$48K	$5M	$2M	$3M	$5M	$12M	$13M	ReceivablesReceiv.
$380K	$1M	$550K	$557K	$911K	$15M	$15M	$14M	InventoryInvent.
$575K	$2M	$2M	$2M	$2M	$4M	$11M	$13M	Accounts payablePayables
$278K	($1M)	$4M	$643K	$2M	$16M	$16M	$14M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$15M	$25M	$24M	$20M	$27M	$41M	$61M	$53M	Current assetsCur. assets
$2M	$4M	$5M	$6M	$16M	$20M	$38M	$44M	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
7.6×	6.5×	5.2×	3.1×	1.7×	2.1×	1.6×	1.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$17M	$26M	$27M	$25M	$32M	$76M	$92M	$98M	Total assetsAssets
$5M	$7M	$7M	$6M	$5M	$30M	$31M	$31M	Total debtDebt
($8M)	($15M)	($8M)	($10M)	($16M)	$15M	$5M	$11M	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-189.8×	-30.7×	-1.4×	-8.6×	-1.1×	—	—	1.9×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$11M	$18M	$18M	$13M	$15M	$24M	$26M	$31M	Shareholders’ equityEquity
196.9%	n/m	15.5%	19.8%	9.9%	8.1%	6.9%	6.7%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
								Per share
17.8M	21.0M	25.2M	25.1M	25.6M	25.9M	26.9M	31.5M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$0.05	$0.00	$0.87	$0.85	$1.23	$1.51	$2.97	$2.76	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-1.03	$-1.33	$-0.08	$-0.36	$-0.04	$-0.15	$-0.17	$-0.05	EPS (diluted)EPS
$-1.03	$-1.07	$-0.19	$0.19	$0.27	$0.04	$0.38	$0.49	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.08	$-1.07	$-0.19	$0.19	$0.27	$0.04	$0.38	$0.49	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.06	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.01	$0.01	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$0.59	$0.84	$0.70	$0.52	$0.60	$0.94	$0.97	$0.97	Book value / shareBVPS

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

	6-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+95.0%/yr	+337.4%/yr
Capital spending / share	−23.5%/yr	+39.1%/yr
Book value / share	+8.6%/yr	+3.0%/yr

The record, charted

FY2019–2025

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

Share count

27Mpeak FY2025

ROIC

−2%low FY2020

Gross margin

53%low FY2019

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

0.5×peak FY2024

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$10Mowner earningsvs.($5M)net incomelow FY2020

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2022FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-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 2025 the business turned a $5M loss into $10M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	($5M)	($4M)	($936K)	($9M)	($2M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$4M	+$1M	+$901K	+$66K	+$155K
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$6M	+$3M	+$3M	+$4M	+$3M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$6M	+$481K	+$4M	+$10M	−$6M
Cash from operations	$11M	$969K	$7M	$5M	($5M)
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$333K	−$26K	—	−$38K	−$9K
Owner earnings	$10M	$943K	$7M	$5M	($5M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	13%	2%	22%	23%	-22%

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 $6M), owner earnings is nearer $5M.

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?

Can it pay its interest? -0.8×

Does not cover its interest

Operating income ($844K) ÷ interest expense $1M

What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $5M

Net debt against an operating loss

Cash $26M − debt $31M

What this means
Netting $26M of cash and short-term investments against $31M of debt leaves $5M owed, with no operating profit this year to measure it against — understand that combination before anything else about the company. 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? 97d

Long (60+ days)

DSO 54 + DIO 151 − DPO 108 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 -205%

Below average through the cycle

6-yr median, range -747%–-2%; -2% latest = NOPAT ($667K) ÷ invested capital $31M

Industry peers: median -70%

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. The headline is the median of the last 6 years (it ran -2% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 13%

Solid, recently turned positive

latest $10M = operating cash $11M − maintenance capex $333K; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (7-yr median 2%)

Industry peers: median -176%

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 13% of revenue this year, a 2% median across 7 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $6M of SBC) leaves $5M.
Are earnings backed by cash? $11M

Loss, but cash-generative

Net income ($5M) · cash from operations $11M

In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.

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.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Investing or harvesting? 0.08×

Harvesting

Capex $333K ÷ depreciation $4M

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 · 0 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 · $80M

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 Near

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.57×

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 Near

Debt ≤ working capital · $31M vs $22M 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.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (7-yr record) · 7 loss years

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

Uninterrupted dividends · none paid

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 —

Earnings +33% over the record · —

What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
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 $-0.11/share (latest year $-0.17), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $0.95/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, 2019–2025

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

Profitable years 0 of 7

What this means
Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 6 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin −23821% → −4% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −23821% early to −4% lately, median −7% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC 59%

What this means
Every extra dollar the business reinvested came back at a high incremental return — the lens GBM read for a moat that reinvests rather than merely harvests. The record and the 10-K are where you check whether the rate holds.
Worst year 2020 · −69515.4% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +7.2%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

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 Named as a competitive risk

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.

“If the analyses that artificial intelligence-based applications assist in producing are deficient or inaccurate, we could be subjected to competitive harm, potential legal liability and brand or reputational harm.”

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 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$53M

Cash & short-term investments$20M
Receivables$13M
Inventory$14M
Other current assets$6M

Current liabilities$44M

Debt due within a year$12M
Accounts payable$13M
Other current liabilities$19M

Current ratio1.21×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.88×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.45×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$9Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$12M due · $20M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+40.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.4× → 1.2×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($13M)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($14M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$31M$515K 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, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2023	Sean E. Brynjelsen	$1.7M	$2.3M	$7M
2024	Sean E. Brynjelsen	$2.4M	$7.9M	$943K
2025	Sean E. Brynjelsen	$2.9M	$6.9M	$10M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership16.5%
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$6M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 7% 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.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc. 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 2019–2025.

1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$5M → $31M
Debt rose from $5M to $31M while owner earnings went from about ($15M) to $6M: measured against what the business earns, the balance sheet carries more debt than it did. Debt raised for buybacks or deals rather than growth is the kind that bites in a downturn.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?

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.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions, Stock compensation as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Pharmaceuticals

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
SPRYARS Pharmaceuticals Inc.	$84M	—	-353.3%	-39%	-320%
ARCTArcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc.	$82M	—	-107.8%	-71%	-65%
ADCTADC Therapeutics SA	$81M	93%	-174.6%	—	-176%
ETONEton Pharmaceuticals Inc.	$80M	60%	-6.8%	-108%	2%
CTMXCytomX Therapeutics Inc.	$76M	—	-124.3%	-20%	-81%
OMEROmeros Corporation	$74M	98%	-451.5%	-213%	-417%
ASMBAssembly Biosciences Inc.	$72M	—	-602.7%	-70%	-130%
VRDNViridian Therapeutics Inc.	$71M	96%	-1815.9%	—	-1328%
Group median	—	95%	-263.9%	-71%	-153%

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 Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc. has delivered.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, Eton Pharmaceuticals Inc. earns about $10M on its 12.7% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 12.7% 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 ($10M) Net of stock comp (−$6M) Steady-state · maintenance capex ($16M)

—

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 · ’21→’25+281%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · since FY2022+29%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

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.

Free cash flow $15M on 27M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-12; net debt $11M. The if-converted diluted count is 32M, 15% above the shares outstanding: the dilution overhang (convertibles, options) a buyer inherits. 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. Capex ($408K) runs well above depreciation ($4M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $16M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh ETON against another business →

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

Manual order: ← ETN its page in the Manual ETR →

Industry order: ← ESPR the Pharmaceuticals chapter EVMN →