Forensic Analysis · Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology · as of Nov 9, 2026
Zevra Therapeutics, Inc. (ZVRA)
A forensic read on Zevra Therapeutics, 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
-0.8
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
85.7%
ROE
350.9%
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.
Zevra Therapeutics, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads -0.8, placing it in the Distress zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-38.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -38.6% in the latest fiscal year, against -70.5% in FY2023, having run between -82.9% and -38.6% across FY2023–FY2025 with no direction held. After-tax operating profit was ($39M) in FY2023 and ($57M) in FY2025, with operating income at -180.6% of revenue in FY2023, -368.5% in FY2024 and -59.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +164% across FY2023–FY2025, from $56M to $147M, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the -70.5% the older base was already earning. $109M of the $147M base at FY2025 is short-term investments and long-term marketable securities (74.4%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so the loss on the operating capital is larger than this rate shows.
+24.9%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Basic share count changed +56% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+24.9%/yr). The count is growing — 35.5M shares in FY2023, 55.3M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~24.9% 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 FY2023 has been diluted ~36%.
stopped
FY2023→FY2024
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $3M of buybacks + dividends in FY2023, but ~$0 in FY2024. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
-$104.8M
FY2023–FY2025
Cash burn vs. reported loss.Over FY2023–FY2025, the company reported a cumulative net loss of $68.3M against operating cash flow of -$104.8M. 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.
+80.9%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +80.9% 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, and much of it is accounted for. The build is led by payables paid down 81% on the year. That build tracks a +351% revenue year: net operating assets grew +136%, so the balance sheet is carrying more volume rather than getting heavier per dollar of sales — the accrual build is funding demand the company is shipping, not earnings running ahead of collection. A cash-flow measure on the same base agrees: reported earnings ran ahead of operating cash by 77% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 80.9%. 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.
12% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 12% of revenue in FY2025 — about $0.23 per basic share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the basic count still rose about 24.9% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. 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$106.5M
Revenue Growth YoY+350.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+96.9%
Net Margin78.2%
Free Cash Flow-$2.4M
Return on Equity85.7%
Debt / Equity0.40x
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 Zevra Therapeutics, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?