Owner Scorecard


← All companies ← SENEB Manual SERV → ← SDGR Pharmaceuticals SGMT →

SEPN, Septerna Inc.

Pharmaceuticals consumer brand Unprofitable

We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new era of GPCR oral small molecule drug discovered powered by our proprietary Native Complex Platform .

We do not intend our use or display of other parties' trademarks, trade names or service marks to imply, and such use or display should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other parties.

Our foundational technologies enable us to isolate, purify, and reconstitute full-length, properly folded GPCR proteins within ternary complexes with ligands and transducer proteins in a lipid bilayer that mimics the cell membrane.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
SEPN · Septerna Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$46M
+4174.5% YoY
Vital signs · TTM, with 3-yr average
Revenue $72M 3-yr avg $16M
Operating margin −77.1% 3-yr avg −2097.6%
ROIC −14% 3-yr avg −28%
Owner-earnings margin 148% 3-yr avg −10781%
Free cash flow margin 148% 3-yr avg −11261%

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 meaningful revenue yet; the record is the cash on hand against the burn.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has reached 1374% at its best but run negative through the cycle (median −149%) — so the question is which reading is truer: whether the median was pulled below zero by one-off charges, by the cycle, or by spending it is still growing into, and whether it settles back at a profit. Stock-based pay runs about 293% 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.

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
$151K$1M$46M$72MRevenueRevenue
n/mn/m63%45%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
n/mn/m212%149%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$2M($81M)($68M)($56M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
n/mn/m−148.6%−77.1%Operating marginOp. mgn
$4M($72M)($49M)($36M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
($39M)($67M)$110M$108MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$800K$1M$2M$2MDepreciationDeprec.
($45M)($224K)$149M$129MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$3M$2M$518K$968KCapexCapex
n/m195.6%1.1%1.3%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($40M)($69M)$110M$107MOwner earningsOwner earn.
n/mn/m238.7%148.0%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($42M)($70M)$110M$107MFree cash flowFCF
n/mn/m238.7%148.0%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
-35%-21%-14%ROICROIC
-17%-13%-10%Return on equityROE
−17%−13%−10%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$88M$421M$549M$522MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$151K$171K$10M$11MReceivablesReceiv.
$3M$3M$10M$7MAccounts payablePayables
($2M)($3M)$73K$3MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$113M$357M$411M$368MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$7M$13M$87M$78MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
16.3×27.8×4.7×4.7×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$131M$457M$596M$570MTotal assetsAssets
($88M)($421M)($549M)($522M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
($38M)$420M$382M$378MShareholders’ equityEquity
n/m293.2%18.4%18.0%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
2.2M9.9M44.3M44.8MShares out (diluted)Shares
$0.07$0.11$1.04$1.61Revenue / shareRev/sh
$1.92$-7.26$-1.10$-0.81EPS (diluted)EPS
$-18.15$-6.96$2.48$2.39Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-19.11$-7.03$2.48$2.39Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.32$0.21$0.01$0.02Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-17.63$42.47$8.63$8.46Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×4.54 into 2024 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×4.47 into 2025 — 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
44Mpeak FY2025

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

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

$110Mowner earningsvs.($49M)net incomelow FY2024

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 $49M loss into $110M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024FY2023
Reported net income($49M)($72M)$4M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$2M+$1M+$800K
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$8M+$3M+$2M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$149M−$224K−$45M
Cash from operations$110M($67M)($39M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$518K−$1M−$800K
Owner earnings$110M($69M)($40M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still−$703K−$2M
Free cash flow$110M($70M)($42M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue239%-6407%-26174%

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 $8M), owner earnings is nearer $101M.

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, debt-free
    Cash $121M + ST investments $270M − debt $0
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $391M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. It also holds $158M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at net cash of $549M. 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?

  • Not enough data
    Industry peers: median -51%
    What this means

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

  • Positive this year, negative across the cycle
    latest $110M = operating cash $110M − maintenance capex $518K (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (3-yr median -6407%)
    Industry peers: median -212%
    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 239% of revenue this year, a -6407% median across 3 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $8M of SBC) leaves $101M.

  • Loss, but cash-generative
    Net income ($49M) · cash from operations $110M
    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?

  • Not enough data
    What this means

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

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.32×
    Harvesting
    Capex $518K ÷ depreciation $2M
    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 · 1 of 2 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 · $46M
    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× · 4.73×
    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.

  • 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 $-0.86/share (latest year $-1.08), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $8.47/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.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product.

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$368M
  • Cash & short-term investments$347M
  • Receivables$11M
  • Other current assets$10M
Current liabilities$78M
  • Accounts payable$7M
  • Other current liabilities$71M
Current ratio4.71×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratioinventory untagged this quarter, so withheld rather than shown equal to the current ratio
Cash ratio4.44×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$290Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+12011.0%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters10.1× → 4.7×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$378Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value$177MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$23M$23M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$152Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

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 ownership5.8%

    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$8M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 18% 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, 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.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
NKTRNektar Therapeutics$55M82%-265.8%-46%-212%
AGIOAgios Pharmaceuticals Inc.$54M94%-809.9%-44%-686%
LXRXLexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc.$50M91%-388.5%-63%-611%
PTGXProtagonist Therapeutics Inc.$46M-225.4%-56%-163%
SEPNSepterna Inc.$46M-148.6%-21%-6407%
AQSTAquestive Therapeutics Inc.$45M60%-72.6%-62%
PVLAPalvella Therapeutics Inc.$43M-124.9%-77%
WVEWave Life Sciences Ltd.$43M-935.3%-512%
Group median-245.6%-46%-362%
IV

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 Septerna Inc. has delivered.

$
Base

The assumptions

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, delivered
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 $107M on 45M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-07; net cash $522M. 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 ($968K) runs well above depreciation ($2M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $107M, 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.

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

Manual order: ← SENEB its page in the Manual SERV →

Industry order: ← SDGR the Pharmaceuticals chapter SGMT →