Forensic Analysis · Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals / Biotech · as of Sep 2, 2026

Cue Biopharma, Inc. (CUE)

A forensic read on Cue Biopharma, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

-27.3

Distress distance

Watch

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

-100.6%

ROE

195.7%

Revenue growth

The financial-health reading above compares this company's equity at BOOK value, not at what the market currently pays for it — this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data. Treat it as a rough read, not the final word.

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Cue Biopharma, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -27.3, placing it in the Distress zone (based on book value, not market value, since this free snapshot doesn't pull live market data — treat this zone as a rough read, not the final word). 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

-1325.9%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is -1325.9% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from -426% — below its ~10% cost of capital. If that gap persists through the cycle, incremental reinvestment reduces rather than creates value per share.

17% of rev

FY2025

Stock-based comp load. Stock-based compensation ran 17% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.05 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 21.8% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.

stopped

FY2022→FY2023

Shareholder returns — halted. Capital returns have STOPPED — $200,000 of buybacks + dividends in FY2022, but ~$0 in FY2023. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.

n/m (stock split)

FY2022–FY2025

Share count (stock split). Diluted share count changed +166% over the last 3 years to FY2025, but that includes a large one-time change around FY2025 consistent with a stock split or reverse split, not gradual buybacks or issuance — a split changes the count with NO effect on any holder's proportional ownership, so the raw +38.5%/yr figure isn't a real buyback/dilution read here.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$27.5M

Revenue Growth YoY+195.7%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+180.4%

Net Margin-96.9%

Free Cash Flow-$21.9M

Return on Equity-100.6%

Debt / Equity0.00x

The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Cue Biopharma, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?

Generate the AI investment read →

No credit card · informational only, not investment advice · see the track record

← Browse all forensic stock analyses

Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 2, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.