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what it is
Cue Biopharma tries to steer immune cells toward cancer and autoimmune disease.
how it gets paid
Last year Cue made $9M in revenue. Immuno-STAT collaborations was the main engine at $3.6M, or 40% of sales.
what just happened
$6M of revenue and -$0.31 EPS kept Cue in the red.
At a glance
C++ balance sheet — some cracks in the foundation
75/100 earnings predictability — reasonably predictable
-$0.72 fy2024 eps est
$9M fy2024 rev est
n/a operating margin
xvary composite: 34/100 — weak
What they do
Cue Biopharma tries to steer immune cells toward cancer and autoimmune disease.
Your moat here is thin. Cue has 41 employees, $9M of annual revenue, and a $22M market cap. That is lab-sized scale wearing a public-company badge. The November 2025 ImmunoScape deal adds $15M upfront and a 40% equity stake, but you still need a real clinical win before this looks durable.
How they make money
$9M
annual revenue
Immuno-STAT collaborations
$3.6M
CUE-100 series
$2.0M
CUE-400 series
$1.8M
CUE-500 series
$0.9M
Other research and fees
$0.7M
The products that matter
autoimmune disease candidate
CUE-401
IND planned Q2 2026
it's the lead asset, but the next hard milestone is still an IND filing in Q2 2026. until then, you are paying for preclinical promise, not human data.
lead program
immune-targeting drug platform
Immuno-STAT Platform
$22M market cap story
this is the engine behind the pipeline, but it sits inside a company valued at just $22M with no approved products. the market is asking for proof, not platform language.
platform bet
research partnerships and grants
Collaboration Revenue
$7.1M · 79% of revenue
this $7.1M stream is the main source of current revenue. it matters because it funds the science, but it is not evidence of a commercial drug business.
funding, not product sales
Key numbers
$9M
annual revenue
That is less than half the $22M market cap, so the stock trades on hope, not scale.
$22M
market cap
For a company with $9M of sales, every rerating matters.
41
employees
Forty-one employees means each person is supporting about $219k of annual revenue.
n/a
operating margin
Prior margin KPI failed sanity check — verify in filings. At this margin, the company spends far more than it sells.
Financial health
C++
strength
- balance sheet grade C++ — below average — limited financial resources
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $3M (11% of capital)
C++ — below average. watch for debt servicing and cash burn.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for CUE right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
$6M of revenue and -$0.31 EPS kept Cue in the red.
Revenue rose 157% vs. prior year, but the company still posted a loss. Yahoo Finance listed no estimate, so the clean read is growth first, profit later.
$6M
revenue
$0.31
eps
n/a
n/a
the number that mattered
$6M is the only hard proof that the business is growing, but it is still too small to cover the loss.
source: company earnings report and EDGAR, 2025
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What could go wrong
the top risk here is running out of cash before CUE-401 reaches human trials.
med
going-concern and dilution risk
Cue has disclosed substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. $20.4M in cash against $29.6M burned over the last 12 months is the kind of math that usually ends with new shares being issued.
If capital comes in on weak terms, current shareholders get diluted before the science gets a clean read.
med
clinical timeline slippage for CUE-401
The lead candidate is still preclinical, and the IND is planned for Q2 2026. If that slips, the company loses time it does not obviously have.
Delay pushes out human data, extends the cash need, and makes financing harder to negotiate from a position of strength.
med
revenue quality is thin
All $9M of current revenue comes from collaboration revenue and grant or other revenue. There are no approved products and no commercial drug sales to absorb a setback.
That exposes 100% of the current top line to partner decisions, grant timing, and the company staying financeable.
A $22M biotech with $20.4M in cash and $29.6M in burn is not juggling three separate risks. It is living one risk through three different forms.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
balance sheet
cash burn versus $20.4M in cash
This is the main scoreboard. If burn keeps running near the recent $29.6M pace, financing pressure arrives before the pipeline has a chance to de-risk itself.
catalyst
CUE-401 IND timing
Management is targeting Q2 2026. Filing on time matters because this is the gate between preclinical theory and human testing.
funding
any capital raise
A financing is not a surprise at this point. The only real question is whether it happens on survivable terms for current shareholders.
quality of results
whether $0.01 EPS repeats
The quarter printed positive EPS, but the full-year expectation is still a -$0.72 loss. You want to know if the positive print was a one-off or the start of a cleaner cost profile.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
75 / 100
In human-speak, analysts think the reported numbers are more predictable than the business outcome. that's possible when accounting is stable but the pipeline is still binary.
beta
1.8
beta measures how violently a stock moves relative to the market. at 1.8, you should expect bigger swings than the index, which fits a $22M preclinical biotech.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for CUE is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$0
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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