Owner Scorecard


← All companies ← XEL Manual XFOR → ← WVE Pharmaceuticals XNCR →

XERS, Xeris Biopharma Holdings Inc.

Pharmaceuticals consumer brand Distress / turnaround

We are a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for people with chronic endocrine and neurological diseases in the United States.

We are advancing our Phase 3-ready pipeline product, XP-8121, once-weekly subcutaneous ("SC") levothyroxine, which leverages our proprietary technology XeriSol.

Our top priority is maximizing the potential of our three commercial products: Recorlev is a cortisol synthesis inhibitor approved for the treatment of endogenous hypercortisolemia in adults with Cushing's syndrome for whom surgery is not an option or has not been curative.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
XERS · Xeris Biopharma Holdings Inc.
I

The business

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

Revenue · FY2025
$292M
+43.7% YoY · 71% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $315M 5-yr avg $164M
Operating margin 11.4% 5-yr avg −68.3%
ROIC 29% 5-yr avg −33%
Owner-earnings margin 15% 5-yr avg −195%
Free cash flow margin 15% 5-yr avg −195%

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
Revenue is led by Recorlev (48%) and Gvoke (32%), with 2 more lines behind.
Situation
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 −74% 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. Inventory runs near 24% 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 customer concentration, 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 −44%, above 15% in 1 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.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 5 lines, the largest Recorlev at 48%.

Revenue by product line, FY2025
  • Recorlev48%$139M
  • Gvoke32%$94M
  • Keveyis16%$48M
  • Royalty, contract and other revenue3%$9M
  • Product, Other1%$2M

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, 2020–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$20M$50M$110M$164M$203M$292M$315MRevenueRevenue
366%254%125%89%81%62%61%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
104%51%19%14%13%11%10%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($84M)($115M)($82M)($44M)($34M)$25M$36MOperating incomeOp. inc.
−414.5%−232.2%−74.3%−26.8%−16.6%8.5%11.4%Operating marginOp. mgn
($91M)($123M)($95M)($62M)($55M)$554K$12MNet incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
($81M)($96M)($103M)($47M)($37M)$29M$49MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$1M$1M$1M$1M$1M$1M$1MDepreciationDeprec.
$842K$14M($22M)$3M($2M)$4M$13MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$377K$1M$1MCapexCapex
1.9%2.2%0.3%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($81M)($97M)$47MOwner earningsOwner earn.
−401.6%−194.8%15.1%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($81M)($97M)$47MFree cash flowFCF
−401.6%−194.8%15.1%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
-79%-78%-59%-30%-20%20%29%ROICROIC
-270%-129%-209%4%92%Return on equityROE
−270%−129%−209%4%92%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$134M$102M$122M$72M$72M$111M$112MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$7M$17M$31M$39M$40M$51M$56MReceivablesReceiv.
$8M$18M$25M$39M$48M$69M$74MInventoryInvent.
$3M$9M$5M$12M$2M$3M$11MAccounts payablePayables
$12M$27M$51M$66M$86M$117M$119MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$152M$143M$187M$156M$168M$240M$252MCurrent assetsCur. assets
$28M$79M$74M$95M$100M$110M$119MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
5.4×1.8×2.5×1.6×1.7×2.2×2.1×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$0$23M$23M$23M$23M$23M$23MGoodwillGoodwill
$159M$304M$345M$323M$323M$384M$392MTotal assetsAssets
$87M$88M$187M$191M$232M$220M$221MTotal debtDebt
($47M)($14M)$65M$118M$160M$109M$109MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
-7.8×-16.0×-5.8×-1.7×-1.1×0.9×1.3×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$34M$95M$45M($7M)($30M)$14M$13MShareholders’ equityEquity
41.0%23.0%11.0%6.5%9.0%7.7%7.0%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
42.6M79.0M136M138M147M173M178MShares out (diluted)Shares
$0.47$0.63$0.81$1.19$1.38$1.69$1.77Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-2.14$-1.55$-0.70$-0.45$-0.37$0.00$0.07EPS (diluted)EPS
$-1.90$-1.22$0.27Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.90$-1.22$0.27Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.01$0.01$0.01Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$0.79$1.21$0.33$-0.05$-0.20$0.08$0.07Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.85 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

The diluted share count moved ×1.72 into 2022 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
5-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+29.0%/yr+29.0%/yr
Capital spending / share+55.3%/yr (1-yr)+55.3%/yr (1-yr)
Book value / share−36.9%/yr−36.9%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

  • Gvoke+13.6%
    “Gvoke Net revenue increased by $11.3 million or 13.6% for the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the year ended December 31, 2024. The increase was due to favorable net pricing ($8.6 million or 10.4%) and higher volume ($2.7 million or 3.2%).”
    ✓ figure matches the filed record
  • Keveyis-3.8%
    “Keveyis Net revenue decreased by $1.9 million or 3.8% for the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the year ended December 31, 2024. The decrease was due to unfavorable net pricing ($5.0 million or 10.1%), offset by higher volume ($3.1 million or 6.3%).”
    ✓ figure matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2020–2025

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

Share count
173Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
20%low FY2020

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 2021 the business turned a $123M loss into ($97M) of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2021FY2020
Reported net income($123M)($91M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$1M+$1M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$11M+$8M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$14M+$842K
Cash from operations($96M)($81M)
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$1M−$377K
Owner earnings($97M)($81M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue-195%-402%

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 $11M), owner earnings is nearer ($108M).

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?

  • Does not cover its interest
    Operating income $25M ÷ interest expense $29M
    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? $109M · 4.4× operating profit
    Heavy net debt
    Cash $111M − debt $220M
    What this means

    Netting $111M of cash and short-term investments against $220M of debt leaves $109M owed, about 4.4× a year's operating profit (8.9× on the gross debt, before the cash). 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 through the cycle
    6-yr median, range -79%–20%; 20% latest = NOPAT $25M ÷ invested capital $123M
    Industry peers: median -37%
    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 20% 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.

  • Solid
    Owner earnings $28M = operating cash $29M − maintenance capex $1M
    Industry peers: median -34%
    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 9% of revenue this year. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $22M of SBC) leaves $5M.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $29M ÷ net income $554K
    What this means

    How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

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? 0.83×
    Maintaining
    Capex $1M ÷ 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 · 1 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 · $292M
    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× · 2.19×
    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 Miss
    Debt ≤ working capital · $220M vs $131M 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 (6-yr record) · 5 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 $-0.23/share (latest year $0.00), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $0.08/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, 2020–2025

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

  • Profitable years 1 of 6
    What this means

    Lost money in 5 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 1 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 −240% → −12% (3-yr avg ends)

    In the filing’s words The record and the words agree: the margin widened and the filing attributes the gain to its own pricing, not volume alone.

    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −240% early to −12% lately, median −74% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Worst year 2020 · −414.5% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2020, understand why before trusting the good years.

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 A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“Additionally, any third-party AI technologies that may be leveraged in our products and services may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, and any loss of rights to use such technologies may significantly increase our expenses or otherwise disrupt or delay the provisioning of our products and se…”

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$252M
  • Cash & short-term investments$112M
  • Receivables$56M
  • Inventory$74M
  • Other current assets$9M
Current liabilities$119M
  • Accounts payable$11M
  • Other current liabilities$107M
Current ratio2.12×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.50×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.94×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$133Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+38.3%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters2.3× → 2.1×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($95M)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($127M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$259M$37M of it operating leases

From the company's latest filing.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 6-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$111M29% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth
Cash spent acquiring$0over 6 years buying other businesses, against $1M of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 6-year record, from the company's own filings.

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 yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Net income
2021$3.8M$2.3M($123M)
2022$2.8M$1.0M($95M)
2023Mr. Edic$2.1M$3.5M($62M)
2024$3.8M$5.6M($55M)
2024$6.8M$8.5M($55M)
2025$5.0M$12.0M$554K
2025$5.0M$12.0M$554K

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. Net income is the whole business's, as filed, for the same fiscal years. A dash under the name means the filing tags the figure without naming the officer.

  • Insider ownership4.4%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • CEO pay ratio73:1

    What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.

  • Stock-based compensation$22M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 8% of revenue, equal to 90% of operating profit. 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 Xeris Biopharma Holdings 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 2020–2025.

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

  • Look hereDid debt outgrow the business?$87M → $221M

    Debt rose from $87M to $221M while owner earnings went from about ($89M) to ($89M): the borrowing grew and the earnings that would carry it are not there now. 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 →
  • How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?
    ≈$283M · 90% of revenue on the largest customers (TTM)
    “As further discussed in "Note 2 - Basis of presentation and summary of significant accounting policies and estimates" to our consolidated financial statements, for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, four customers accounted for over 90% of the Company's gross product revenue.”verify →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition 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.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
CRMDCorMedix Inc.$312M8%-8961.5%-202%-7330%
EOLSEvolus Inc.$297M68%-44.0%-142%-34%
IRWDIronwood Pharmaceuticals Inc.$296M94%27.3%44%35%
RIGLRigel Pharmaceuticals Inc.$294M99%-36.4%-117%-71%
XERSXeris Biopharma Holdings Inc.$292M-50.6%-44%9%
HROWHarrow Inc.$272M70%0.8%-11%-1%
LGNDLigand Pharmaceuticals$268M96%31.6%2%45%
ARVNArvinas Inc.$263M-306.3%-37%-118%
Group median-40.2%-41%-17%
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 Xeris Biopharma Holdings 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.

Owner earnings $47M on 173M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-30; net debt $109M. 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. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

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

Manual order: ← XEL its page in the Manual XFOR →

Industry order: ← WVE the Pharmaceuticals chapter XNCR →