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what it is
Nkarta is trying to build off-the-shelf immune cell treatments for cancer, but today you are buying research, not a business.
how it gets paid
Last year Nkarta made $0 in revenue.
what just happened
The last reported quarter showed EPS of -$0.29, better than the prior year's quarterly loss range and ahead of the tracked estimate data available.
At a glance
C+ balance sheet — struggling to keep the lights on
60/100 earnings predictability — reasonably predictable
-$1.60 fy2024 eps est
1.3 beta
~$161M market cap
xvary composite: 25/100 — weak
What they do
Nkarta is trying to build off-the-shelf immune cell treatments for cancer, but today you are buying research, not a business.
Nkarta's pitch is speed and scale. Allogeneic (donor-derived cells) → ready-made cell therapy → so what: you do not wait for each patient-specific batch. It has 150 employees and two lead programs, which is tiny versus big pharma, but enough to keep multiple shots on goal alive.
How they make money
$0
annual revenue
The products that matter
balance sheet runway
cash runway
$282M cash · $94M burn
$282M of cash against a $94M trailing burn gives you roughly three years of runway if spending does not rise. In clinical biotech, that is not bookkeeping. It is permission to keep the story alive.
foundation
lead clinical program
NKX019
the thesis carrier
The entire company is valued at about $161M and revenue is still $0, so NKX019 is doing more of the equity work than any operating metric can. If the data improve, the story changes fast. If they do not, it changes faster.
catalyst
platform optionality
broader pipeline
still mostly a promise
With $0 revenue today, any credible second source of value would matter because it would make NKTX look less like a one-asset bet. Until then, "platform" is a future tense word.
future
Key numbers
$70M
long-term debt
Debt equals 30% of capital, which means a company with $0 revenue already has a fixed bill attached to its science project.
$1.60
2024 EPS est.
EPS → profit per share → so what: Nkarta is still expected to lose $1.60 a share for 2024, even after improving from -$2.40 in 2023.
$0
annual revenue
Revenue → money from customers → so what: there is no operating business funding the pipeline yet.
1.3
beta
Beta → how jumpy the stock is versus the market → so what: you should expect sharper swings than an index fund.
Financial health
C+
strength
- balance sheet grade C+ — weak — may struggle to fund operations
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $70M (30% of capital)
C+ — below average. watch for debt servicing and cash burn.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for NKTX right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
The last reported quarter showed EPS of -$0.29, better than the prior year's quarterly loss range and ahead of the tracked estimate data available.
Quarterly losses improved across 2024, moving from -$0.58 in Q1 to -$0.35 in Q4 based on the primary source. The business still produced $0 revenue, so the story was lower burn, not commercial traction.
$0
revenue
$0.35
eps
0.0%
gross margin
the number that mattered
Full-year EPS improved to -$1.60 from -$2.40, which tells you the burn got lighter even though sales stayed at $0.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk here is weak or failed NKX019 clinical data. With $0 revenue and one lead program carrying the story, a bad readout would not be a rough quarter. It would be a repricing event.
med
NKX019 fails to earn platform credibility
This stock is still mostly one program wearing a platform label. If the next important data set disappoints, investors will stop paying for future optionality and start valuing the company closer to cash.
With $0 revenue, weak data pushes the story back toward the balance sheet and away from pipeline upside.
med
cash burn forces dilution
A $94M trailing burn rate against $282M of cash sounds comfortable until timelines slip. Clinical companies rarely get rewarded for raising capital late.
If spending stays high and milestones move out, the roughly three-year runway can compress into a financing event.
med
the pipeline stays narrower than the pitch
Biotech decks love the word platform. The market usually wants proof that more than one asset matters. If nothing beyond NKX019 starts to matter, NKTX keeps trading like a single binary bet.
That caps upside even if the science remains interesting, because investors will not pay a platform premium for a one-asset story.
With $0 revenue, $94M of burn, and a $161M market cap, this stock does not need bad earnings to fall — it just needs the trial story to slip.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
calendar
the next cash update
The market already knows revenue is $0. What matters next is whether cash stays near $282M and whether burn stays near the current $94M pace.
trend
whether NKX019 is still the whole story
If every important paragraph still leads back to NKX019, the company is still a single-asset bet. The day that changes is the day the valuation framework changes.
risk
dilution risk before the next major catalyst
Three years of runway sounds fine until trial timing stretches. Watch for any sign that management needs capital before the science gets a fair hearing.
metric
cash burn versus market cap
$94M of trailing burn against a $161M market value is the contrast that matters. If burn rises, the margin for error shrinks fast.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
thin coverage
target data is thin here. in human-speak: there is no clean consensus to lean on.
risk profile
high
A 1.3 beta and 5 / 100 price stability tell you this stock does not trade like a sleepy healthcare name.
chart momentum
headline-driven
This name trades more on catalyst timing and financing risk than on smooth technical trends.
earnings predictability
60/100
For a pre-revenue biotech, costs are somewhat forecastable. The science is not.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for NKTX is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$2
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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