Forensic Analysis · Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology · as of Nov 10, 2026
Septerna, Inc. (SEPN)
A forensic read on Septerna, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.8
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-12.2%
ROE
4174.5%
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.
Septerna, Inc. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.8, placing it in the Safe zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+35.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +35.8% 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. The build is led by receivables up +5956% against revenue +4175%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 72% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 35.8%. 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. Read them as two results, not one.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.
82d DSO
FY2024→FY2025
Receivables vs revenue.Days sales outstanding moved from 58 to 82 days FY2024→FY2025 (receivables +5956% vs revenue +4175%). Receivables are outrunning sales — a flag for aggressive revenue recognition or slipping collections. There's no FY2023 figure on file for receivables, so FY2024 has no opening balance to average against — both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, since averaging only the current year would make the move track balance-sheet growth rather than the business.DSO (days sales outstanding): the average days the company waits to collect cash after a sale.
+347.5%/yr
FY2024–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +347% over the last 1 year to FY2025 (+347.5%/yr). The count is growing — 9.9M shares in FY2024, 44.3M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~347.5% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2024 has been diluted ~78%.
18% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 18% of revenue and 8% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.19 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 347.5% 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.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$46.0M
Revenue Growth YoY+4174.5%
Net Margin-106.4%
Free Cash Flow$109.7M
Return on Equity-12.2%
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 Septerna, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?