Forensic Analysis · Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology · as of Nov 9, 2026
Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR)
A forensic read on Nektar Therapeutics built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
F · Poor — capital at risk
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
-41.6
Distress distance
5
Forensic signals
-217.9%
ROE
-43.9%
Revenue growth
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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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.
Nektar Therapeutics earns an F (Poor — capital at risk) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -41.6, placing it in the Distress zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+127.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +127.7% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 97% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 127.7%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
stopped
FY2024→FY2025
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $3M of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
-$576.8M
FY2023–FY2025
Cash burn vs. reported loss.Over FY2023–FY2025, the company reported a cumulative net loss of $482.6M against operating cash flow of -$576.8M. Cash burn ran heavier than the reported loss — something outside net income (working capital, a cash item not in the P&L) is consuming cash faster than the loss alone implies.
23% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 23% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.75 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 23.0% a year across FY2024–FY2025, above the level at which the count is a material claim on a stake, and only one year's change is on file — enough to state what a holder gave up, not enough to say whether the rate is climbing or coming down. 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.
$77M
FY2023
Goodwill impairments.Took $77M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($77M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$55.2M
Revenue Growth YoY-43.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)-21.7%
Net Margin-297.1%
Free Cash Flow-$208.7M
Return on Equity-217.9%
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 Nektar Therapeutics's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?