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what it is
Zymeworks makes cancer drugs and drug platforms, then gets paid through partnerships, milestones, and future royalty checks.
how it gets paid
Last year Zymeworks made $106M in revenue.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 38.9% last year. $103 million matters because it is almost the entire $106 million trailing revenue base showing up in one quarter.
what just happened
Revenue hit $103M, up 275% vs. prior year, but EPS still landed at -$0.53.
At a glance
B+ balance sheet — decent shape, but not bulletproof
5/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
25.2% return on capital — every dollar works hard here
-$1.08 fy2025 eps est
$2B fy2026 rev est
xvary composite: 48/100 — below average
What they do
Zymeworks makes cancer drugs and drug platforms, then gets paid through partnerships, milestones, and future royalty checks.
You are not buying a giant drug seller. You are buying a 286-person biotech with one lead HER2 program spread across Phase I, II, and III trials and partnered programs with larger drug companies. Partnerships → bigger companies help fund development → so what: your upside can scale faster than a 286-person team normally could.
How they make money
$106M
annual revenue · their business grew +38.9% last year
total revenue
$106M
+38.9%
The products that matter
lead clinical candidate
Ziihera®
$2.3B peak-sales consensus · up 94%
analyst peak-sales consensus for Ziihera has risen 94% to $2.3B. that's the dream embedded in a stock tied to just $106M of current revenue.
lead asset
royalty-linked asset
Zanidatumab
royalties still small
full royalty value returns after a note is repaid, but current royalty revenue for the whole company is only $2.5M. for now, this is more promise than profit.
not material yet
partner-backed research
Preclinical pipeline
3 named partners
Jazz, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck give the platform validation and optional funding. they do not yet give you a stable income stream.
optionality
Key numbers
$2.0B
2026 sales bet
That estimate is the whole argument. Against $106 million of trailing revenue, you are being asked to underwrite a roughly 19x jump.
87.3%
operating margin
Operating margin → profit after running the business → so what: Zymeworks still loses about $87 on every $100 of revenue.
$106M
ttm revenue
This is the real business size today. It matters because the market cap is about $2 billion, or roughly 19x trailing sales.
25.2%
return on capital
Return on capital → profit produced from invested money → so what: the pipeline has produced enough value on paper to keep investors engaged despite current losses.
Financial health
B+
strength
- balance sheet grade B+ — solid but not elite
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 10 / 100
B+ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for ZYME right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
missed estimates
Revenue hit $103M, up 275% vs. prior year, but EPS still landed at -$0.53.
The quarter showed what milestone-heavy biotech revenue looks like. Sales can spike fast, but profits still lag because the cost base remains heavy and inconsistent.
$103M
revenue
$0.53
eps
29.29%
gross margin
the number that mattered
$103 million matters because it is almost the entire $106 million trailing revenue base showing up in one quarter, which tells you revenue timing is lumpy.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is clinical or regulatory failure around Ziihera. at a $2B market cap and just $106M in revenue, there is not much mature business underneath the science.
med
Lead-asset setback
The company is being valued for what Ziihera could become, not what current operations already are. If clinical data disappoints or regulators push back, the stock loses the narrative supporting that $2B valuation.
Impact: this would hit the asset behind the 94%-higher $2.3B peak-sales expectation.
med
Cash burn and future dilution
Zymeworks has $270.6M in liquidity, which is real support. It also has a -76.56% net margin, which is a real reminder that support gets consumed. If development costs rise or partner cash slows, more financing becomes the obvious next chapter.
Impact: dilution risk stays live until the business shifts from funding science to monetizing it.
med
Milestone-driven revenue volatility
Q4 revenue was just $2.5M after missing estimates by $19.3M. When 97.7% of annual revenue comes from collaboration and license payments, quarter-to-quarter results can swing wildly without telling you much about long-term demand.
Impact: sharp estimate misses can keep the stock volatile even when the long-term pipeline story is unchanged.
A delay, a failed study, or just slower partner payments would pressure a valuation already leaning on future drug economics more than present operating results.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
lead risk
EMPOWUR-303 trial data for Ziihera
This is the obvious catalyst because the stock is still underwriting future drug value. Positive data helps justify the $2.3B peak-sales narrative. Bad data would make the market remember current revenue is $106M.
calendar
next earnings after the $2.5M revenue quarter
You want to see whether revenue normalizes from the Q4 collapse or stays hostage to milestone timing. Another tiny quarter would reinforce that visibility remains poor.
estimate trend
more analyst revisions after the March 5 EPS cut
Predictability sits at 5 / 100. In a stock like this, estimate cuts are not housekeeping. They are a signal that the street is still trying to pin down the basic shape of the income statement.
business quality
royalties becoming more than $2.5M
The cleanest upgrade to the story would be less dependence on one-off collaboration payments and more recurring royalty income. Until that happens, the revenue base remains thin beneath the market cap.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
5 / 100
In human-speak: analysts do not have a stable model here because milestone revenue makes the quarter look different every time.
risk rank
3
Risk rank: 3. That reads as middling balance-sheet safety, which is better than distressed biotech but nowhere near low-drama.
price stability
10 / 100
Price stability: 10 / 100. Translation: the stock trades like clinical and financing headlines matter, because they do.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for ZYME is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$24
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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